Chapter 240: What to Choose?

The tent was silent for a while as Renna carefully applied the cream to his wounds.

Magna’s mind, however, was louder than ever, crowded with thoughts.

He had already experienced many times how ordinary death was in this world. Now, looking at Renna’s calm, focused face, her crimson eyes, and her cheeks that were slightly red for some reason, he was painfully aware that he might not get to see her tomorrow.

With that thought in mind, he silently went over everything he could use to protect what he still had left.

There was the fallen Shadow’s armor. It would at least improve his defenses against the Bleeding Desolation.

It wasn’t much, but perhaps he didn’t need to fight the monster directly. If he could withstand its aura long enough to draw its attention, he might be able to lead it somewhere else.

Of course, that depended on whether it was aware enough to react to a provocation and follow him. He could also die before managing any of that, since he still hadn’t seen what the monster could actually do.

With so much uncertainty, that plan wasn’t very promising. He moved on to his second option.

The spells he had learned so far.

His strongest spell was Phoenix Wings, which he could use with either fire or cold after modifying its pattern.

Perhaps the cold version would help him withstand the monster’s heat. Wearing the armor at the same time could give him an even better chance of enduring its aura.

But that still left him with the same problem. He didn’t know what else the monster could do. If it had other ways to fight, resisting its heat and corrosion might not be enough.

Besides, Phoenix Wings consumed a lot of mana, something he didn’t have much of.

Thinking about his other spells brought him back to the mysterious one he had learned from the Stonemen’s chief.

He had used it to move the giant rock, but how exactly had it done that?

He could still remember the words floating in the air after the spell activated, like messages appearing in a developer console.

’...System Override... Access Granted... World Edit...’

They reminded him of the commands he used in his games to gain developer access and change things that ordinary players couldn’t.

If the spell worked in a similar way, it might let him access this world’s developer console and rewrite the code behind it. That would make it far more powerful than he had first imagined.

But that possibility was also why he hadn’t tried it again. If he was right about how it worked, a single wrong command could cause a change he had no way to undo.

He would have to find a way to experiment with it later. For now, he turned his attention to his last option.

His mutations.

He still had enough mana to undergo 1 more mutation. The problem was that none of the 3 options seemed capable of helping him right now.

Still, he looked over them again, hoping he had missed something useful.

[Option 1: Expend 100% of accumulated energy to double the efficiency of converting nutrients from ordinary food into mana.]

[Option 2: Expend 100% of accumulated energy to gain the ability to maintain two independent thought processes simultaneously.]

[Option 3: Expend 100% of accumulated energy to gain the ability to perfectly imitate any voice you have heard.]

As good as the first option sounded, it only applied to ordinary food, not food rich in mana.

The amount of mana he gained from ordinary food was already painfully low. Doubling it would be nice, but the difference wouldn’t be that impressive.

Compared to that, the second option seemed much more useful. It would be like having 2 minds, allowing him to fight while forming a spell pattern inside his body. He could do both at once without having to divide his attention between them.

That benefit wouldn’t be limited to fighting either. He could use it for all kinds of things in his daily life, even while studying spells.

As for the third option, he didn’t really need it. His vocal range was already wide enough to let him manipulate and control his mana however he wanted. At least, it was enough for the high-tier spells he could use now.

He didn’t know whether even higher-tier spells existed or if they would require a wider, more complex range of sounds. But that wasn’t something he needed to worry about right now.

’None of them are good enough to save the day.’

Useful as some of them were, he couldn’t see any of them helping him deal with the monster approaching their camp.

He could choose one, then use the 10 pills left in his pockets to undergo another mutation. But there was no guarantee the next set of options would offer anything useful either.

Even if he asked Renna for more mana-replenishing pills and went through 2 or 3 more mutations, it still wouldn’t guarantee anything against a Desolation that powerful.

Unable to find a reliable solution through mutations, his thoughts returned to the mysterious spell.

He still knew so little about it. Perhaps it could do something useful, if he could figure out how to test it without causing an even bigger problem.

With that concern in mind, he looked up at Renna. She had finished applying the cream and was now wrapping his wounds in white bandages.

"How likely is it for a new spell to go out of control when someone tries it? Enough to cause a serious disaster?"

Renna raised an eyebrow at the unexpected question. "Do you have a new spell you want to try?"

She had already seen him modify Phoenix Wings, miraculously changing it from fire to ice. After that, she was rather curious about what he might try next.

Magna shook his head. "It’s not new, actually. I just have a spell that I don’t fully understand yet."

He didn’t tell her where he had learned it. Renna didn’t ask either, answering his question instead.

"Well, there have been plenty of Witches throughout history who grievously injured or even killed themselves while trying new spells."

Magna had already considered that possibility, so the warning didn’t frighten him. What concerned him more was what might happen to everyone else.

"What about the surroundings? How much destruction could a spell cause if it went out of control?"

If he accidentally gave the entire universe a delete command, that would certainly solve his Bleeding Desolation problem. Though that wasn’t exactly an efficient way to solve it.

Understanding his concern, Renna chuckled. "That’s what you’re worried about? With your mana capacity at the 9th Trial, the most you could destroy would be an area the size of this camp. With a body like yours, I doubt you could even hurt yourself badly enough to die."

Magna’s eyes lit up at her answer. He even felt a little stupid for not thinking of that himself.

Of course, no matter how powerful a spell was, its effects depended on how much mana went into it. Even the basic books he had read in Celeste’s study had explained that.

He had been so focused on what the spell might do that he had forgotten how little mana he had to power it. There was no way he could destroy the entire universe with that amount.

With that concern finally settled, he immediately stood up.

"Thanks for treating my wounds." He gave Renna a quick hug before rushing out of the tent.

Left alone, she stared after him in confusion, her cheeks growing even redder.

"What is he up to?" She couldn’t even guess what he was about to try, only hope he wouldn’t come back with even more injuries.