Chapter 4-Magical awakening

*The forest path narrowed as dusk settled, the air thick with the scent of pine resin and impending rain. Filish's party trudged in silence, their boots crunching over twigs and loose stones. Glim, the gnome chef, clutched his ladle like a shield, his knuckles white. Thokk, the half-orc bard, plucked a discordant tune on his tiny accordion, the sound grating against the stillness. Lira trailed behind, her undead gerbil called Sir Silis, still not summoned. Serra stalked ahead, daggers glinting at her hips, her leather armor blending into the shadows*

Filish Silently talking to himself: "310 EXP down… 190 to go. How hard can two magic beasts be?"

*[Famous last words! (◕‿◕) But hey, at least your funeral will be entertaining!}*

Serra yelled ay Filish: "Quit talking to yourself. We're close."

*The first tendril of smoke curled through the trees—acrid and unnatural, tinged with ozone. Then came the screams*

*Ember Hollow was a graveyard of fire. Cerulean flames devoured thatched roofs, their unnatural light casting the village in ghostly hues* Villagers scrambled through the chaos, some yelling and some not, a blacksmith swung his hammer at a collapsing beam, shouting for his daughter, an elderly woman dragged a sack of grain twice her size, her breath ragged, a child wailed atop a splintered cart, trapped under debris*

Filish looking at all the chaos: "What… what are those flames?!"

*[Storm Scarab Special™! Magical arsonists since FOREVER! Don't touch, unless you fancy becoming a human torch! (◕◡◕✿) Highly flammable! Don't touch!"*

*a thunderous crack split the air. Two Storm Scarabs erupted from the inferno, wolf-sized beetles, their obsidian carapaces crackling with arcs of lightning. Mandibles snapped, shearing through stone like parchment. One lunged at the blacksmith, its tail whipping a haycart into splinters*

Serra drawing daggers, preparing to fight: "D-rank?! Those are C-rank!"

Glim trembled in fear: "T-the guild said crops! Not… not this!"

Filish started running at the scarabs: "System, Time Stop!"

*[Skill Activated! 30 seconds! (⌐■_■) Tick-tock, hero]*

*The world froze as the name time stop implied, flames hung like shattered glass. Filish sprinted toward the nearest Scarab, Serra's quickly snatched dagger in hand*

Filish ran, and jumped, striking the antenna directly: "C'mon, break—!"

*It didn't work, or at least he would have to wait for the time stop to finish to see if it worked*

[25 seconds remaining]

*He scrambled for more tools, a pitchfork, a smith's hammer, a burning timber. Each strike adding to the final damage, Filish only hoped the accumulated damage on a single point would finish this single beetle*

Filish really wanting the beetle to die: "Lets hope this works!"

[20 seconds.]

Filish shaking his head in desperation: "Focus!"

[15 seconds.]

*He rigged a cart of blacksmith tools beneath the Scarab, hammers, tongs, a barrel of oil. A match hissed to life*

[5… 4… 3…]

Time resumed.

*A loud sound boomed, scorching the surroundings*

*The beetle boomed, most of its shell cracked and fell off from the concentrated attacks, it shrieked as it burnt in its own flames unprotected due to its now useless shell*

Filish yelling: "I feel like time stop is still too overpowered even if I can use it only for 30 seconds!"

*Tge beetle's partner ran at Thokk, slightly angry due to its sibling getting killed*

Thokk (strumming wildly): "THOKK'S LULLABY!"

*The soundwave hit like a battering ram, stunning the beast mid-leap. Serra pounced, driving her dagger into its milky eye*

Serra: "Looks like one of the team members is actually useful! Well, one is already down, time to kill this one!"

*The paralyzed scarab regained its senses, spinning itself mid air, hurling her into a haycart*

*[Serra's HP: 82%! (☉_☉) Be careful! She may die]*

*Filish's nose bled, crimson droplets staining his shirt. His hands trembled, not from fear, but exhaustion*

Filish: "Time Stop… again!"

*Filish tried the same thing, getting as much things as he could, and hitting the scarab on the shell with what he could find*

*"15 seconds remaining..."*

*[Remaining time is 10 seconds! (◕︵◕) Should've wished for stamina!]*

*After 10 seconds, time stop stopped, a loud crack was heard as the shell of the final living scarab almost shattered, but it is not burning for it was not in fire when its shell got broken*

*The remaining Scarab charged, lightning crackling down its tail. Filish dove, rolling as mandibles gouged the earth where he'd stood*

Glim throw a boiling pot of stew at the remaining scarab: "H-hot stew!"

*The Scarab recoiled, hissing as spice-clouds burned its antennae. Lira ran, and hid herself behind a tree*

Lira: "I want to help, just that… this is so scary!"

*She hid, crying to herself*

Filish started: "When do I get my next wish!"

*[When you get the two magic stones of these two scarabs, which will also complete the party quest mission ༽◺_◿༼]*

Filish: "Ok, so, time stop!"

"*29 seconds remaining!*"

*Filish used the same tactic, finding random items among the burning village, another hammer, a whole hay bale, smacking the almost broken and defeated scarab many times, and after time resumed with the end of the time stop ability, a loud crunch was heard again, the scarab blew up, its shell stood no chance against (technically) 2 REALLY strong attacks*

Serra surprised: "I have no idea how you do this kid but you sure are powerful with whatever magic you are using!"

*The party rest, until they hear many trees falling and being torn apart by something big*

Filish: "What is that noise?"

Serra: "Damn it! The mother scarab is here, we better ru-"

*She didn't even finish talking as she got sent flying by the mother scarab, crashing into a house, the house cracked almost entirely since she went right through it, breaking through the two wood walls and then causing a crater on the second building she hit*

*[This is really bad! Serra's health is at 10%!! o(〒﹏〒)o]*

*The mother took one look at Filish, it saw a lot of mana gathering outside his body, but not being able to enter it, the mother still chose him as the biggest target, then it screeched, causing a great shockwave, Filish covered his ears, barely escaping his ears being shattered, but he felt strange, it was as if his head started to vibrate intensely, like it was started to crack, his head then started to hurt intensely*

"[This is one of the most dangerous techniques I have seen in this world! Causing a sound loud enough to reach someone's resonate frequency for their skull causing their head to explode is truly dangerous, so, host, you better do something before you wont be able to think about it! 〣 ( ºΔº ) 〣]"

Filish: "What! Well, time stop!"

*The world froze as it does every time, he quickly tries to bash its head, but he can't reach it, so he starts hitting one of the legs with every thing he can find, there is not much after dealing with the two scarabs but he can still work with wood, kitchen utensils, and big rocks he can find on the ground*

Filish hitting the leg with a rock: "I will just do this for the rest of the legs until I make it legless"

*[5 seconds remaining...]*

*The then world started moving, but nothing changed, the mother beetle still stood, its leg almost completely fine, the mother beetle almost being smart enough to have a consciousness quickly jumps back and starts screeching at Filish again, his head starting to hurt*

*Filish ran to the corpses of the dead beetles, quickly collecting the stones before his head was gone and then yelling at the system*

Filish yelling: "system! Didn't we already complete those two missions! I got the two magic stones and we completed a quest with my party!"

"[Oh yeah, 190 EXP ACQUIRED, WISH UNLOCKED, PLEASE TELL THE SYSTEM YOUR WISH, IT SHALL BE GRANTED BUT LIMITED"

Filish: "I guess the wish for a status and a skill shop can wait, SYSTEM! I wish for my mana vessels to be opened along with the knowledge of all magic!"

*[…Are you sure? That is a pretty big wish and the drawback may be big... (◕︵◕ ), well, the drawback will be that it will be kind of painful, but you will get "WIPED, ERASED, BLAH BLAH BLAH", if you use magic for more than 5 minutes if you are NOT above "INTERMEDIATE LEVEL" in mana/magic usage *

Filish: "Yeah sure JUST DO IT!"

*[Wish usage... Mana vessels opening along with magic knowledge... ACQUIRED...]*

*Filish without hesitation, and with his new-found knowledge on how to use magic immediately started using magic, and with the first usage of magic came the breaking of the mana vessels, and so fire flooded Filish's veins*

Filish: "GAAAH...! TIS ALMOST HURTS AS MUCH AS GETTING HIT BY A TRUCK"

*Mana erupted, a blinding burst of pure light, sound, and heat. The Scarab staggered, before Filish's head exploded, carapace fracturing under the onslaught*

Serra, crawling to Filish: "Filish, when did you learn to use magic, well, kid, you sure got a lot of suprise-"

*She fell asleep due to getting thrown into a WHOLE DAMN BUILDING, THAT EVEN ALMOST FULLY COLLAPSED DUE TO HER, she is lucky she survived even if she did a little of mana body strengthening*

"VENTUS or whatever just go!"

*A hurricane made of magic particles tore through the village, extinguishing flames but uprooting homes. A child's cry echoed as the wind pinned her against a wall*

Filish clutching his skull as his ears bleed, trying to kill the mother scarab: "BIG AHH SCARAB JUST DIE ALREADY!"

*The earth quaked. From the smoldering fields rose the Mother Scarab, a leviathan with wings of stormclouds and eyes like dying stars. Her shriek shattered windows, villagers clapping hands over bleeding ears*

Filish: "COULD YOU JUST DIE!"

*Every spell tore him apart "FULGUR!" Lightning seared his palms, skin blistering from the pure magical energy, "TERRA!" Stone spikes erupted, pinning the mother scarab while impaling it, "metallicum!" Large metal spikes pieced the mother scarab, tearing it apart, "IGNIS ULTIMA!"

*A miniature sun erupted from his hands, scorching his own hands, but Filish uses it to vaporize the Mother's head. Her body collapsed, shaking the earth, and so, Filish fell to the ground, his body trembling... but something was wrong, the mother twitched, and started to move, the mother stood up, her head regenerating as her magical stone outside her head but still attached by a string of flesh, shown clearly glowing brightly as she is starting to heal*

*[WARNING HOST, MOTHER SCARAB IS STILL ALIVE, TIME LEFT UNTIL "ERASURE": 2 seconds, YOU ARE GOING TO DIE TO THE SCARAB AND IF YOU USE MAGIC YOU WILL ALSO DIE]*

Lira: "I want to do something! But I can't... STOP BEING SO STUPID AND FEARFUL! WHY AM I SO STUPID! TODAY, I WON'T BE STUPID, I WILL DO SOMETHING!"

*Lira ran, grabbing a rock, and she starts to tear the flesh still attached to the magic stone before the mother scarab fully regenerates*

Lira: "JUST DIE YOU FUCKING BUG!"

*With one final swing, the flesh is torn off, and so the mother beetle starts to disintegrate, vanishing to dust*

Filish watched in awe as she is clearly not being fearful for the first time, he whispers through a hoarse voice: "And here I thought she would be the fearful one that everyone usually hates in novels, huff, huff..."

*Dawn broke over the ruins. Survivors emerged, hugging children and salvaging charred heirlooms. The blacksmith found his daughter, her doll clutched in soot-stained hands. Filish lay in the ash, every nerve screaming*

Serra woke up, she crawls beside him: "You idiot."

Filish in his hoarse voice: "Wow, Lira, you did it, you killed the big ass scarab huff, huff..."

Thokk is holding one giant glowing crystal): "Thokk got loot! Shiny!"

Glim offering soup for he knows he only did a tiny bit: "Extra spice… for the pain."

Filish sipped, gagging: "Tastes like burnt hair."

Lira petting the undead Sir Silis: "So… I finally did something, I can't believe it"

Filish: "So if this was a novel, you have been changed from a side character to a waifu"

Lira: "Seems like the magic messed with sir Filish's head! Lets get sir Filish to a bed as fast as possible"

Filish: "I whish there were more of my people in this world"

*[New Mission: Rest for 72 Hours! (Or die!) (◕‿◕ ) not really though]*

Filish: "Yeah… yeah, wait... can I use a wish to summon someone from my original world into this world, and could they also have their own wish system!?"

*"Well... I understand how you are lonely, but yes you could! But they wouldn't be able to have any system, and this world is dangerous without powers or abilities... (┳Д┳)"*

Filish: "OK! I will use my next wish to upgrade you to have RPG things like status and skill shop, and with that wish I will give myself the ability to give people a RPG system as well but without the wish ability, then when I wish for that I will then wish for one of my friends to come to my world! And so I will give to them with the most perks I can! This plan has no flaws!"

*"Your a madman, but that's an amazing idea actually! ╰། ◉ ◯ ◉ །╯, so did you forget about resting, the pain still lingers and it will only heal if you sleep so if you want to even fight you better get resting."*

Filish: "OW, you just made me remember, hey, everyone, just carry me to some bed..."

*The town people are amazing at how this singe party managed to deal with a high rank C-rank beast, so they carry him to one of the undamaged beds out of gratitude*