​​This time he chose a simpler shape – a ball just a bit more oblong than usual. Layer by layer, the spell constructed itself. It was hard to maintain, but it was doable. In the end, the Mana Bolt formed successfully. It wasn’t much different, but it was proof his concept could work. Bit by bit, he would improve. He shot off the bolt. It went wide, digging a hole into the cavern wall. Cracked rock slid down around where his attack had struck.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt Lvl 31→32. 1 Skill Point Awarded.

His eyes widened, Mana Bolt was much stronger than he thought it was – Power 2 had taken it to a new level. It was just that Nacho was a tough opponent, making his attacks look weak and ineffective. Bullets would probably not affect him much, either. It would probably take a missile to do any real damage to the rock monster. With a thought, he disabled additional notifications; he couldn't afford to be distracted.

He continued running around the cavern, dodging attacks, raising Mana Bolt’s skill level, and slowly becoming more proficient at using Metamagic to alter Mana Bolt’s shape.

He found that it was easier to modify the Bolt’s shape if he did it in multiple steps, with each one bringing him a bit closer to his desired goal. Of course, this method required him to use Metamagic to have the spell not immediately fly away. Compared to what he was trying to achieve, it was easy. Only a couple times did the spell blast away prematurely.

He continued refining his process, slowly changing Mana Bolt’s shape a bit more with each attempt. On his 11th attempt, he succeeded in lengthening Mana Bolt to the point where it was longer than it was tall. On the 27th attempt, he formed a point at the end of the Bolt. On his 42nd attempt, he succeeded in creating a sharp object. It wasn’t the crescent of overwhelming power he had first desired, instead, he had formed a pointed spike, similar to a small double-sided spear in shape.

Uneven lumps marred its surface, and it wasn’t completely straight, but it was still able to fly through the air without any problems. The modified Mana Bolt struck the golem’s hand, digging a small hole in the rock before the spell became unstable and burst apart in a thousand blue motes of light.

He dodged an attack and pondered how to further improve the spell. His current method consisted of stretching the ball out from its sides like playdough and then sharpening the elongated sides to a point. For some reason, the skill provided the least resistance if he did it that way. The process was slow. With half of his attention focused on avoiding the golem; it took him around a minute to modify Mana Bolt to its current point.

The problem with the spell currently was that it was fragile. The initial 5 MP that went into it got spread too thin once it was elongated. One potential fix he could think of off the top of his head was lowering the attack's size. It would almost double the time it took to complete a single attack if he pursued that method. Shrinking the spear down would stretch his abilities to their limits.

However, he wasn’t sure how else to go about fixing the problem. He had already tried adding more mana to the structure, but that resulted in it becoming unstable. The more mana he put into it, the harder it was to control.

He ran out of range of another one of Nacho’s attacks. The golem was extremely durable and strong, but it moved at a comparatively glacial pace. Additionally, the golem wasn’t very smart; once he got a read on the monster’s attack patterns, it wasn’t very difficult to avoid them. The problem was that he was growing tired. His lungs burned, and his legs ached. He was slower than when he started. Nacho’s attacks got closer to landing with every passing minute. The giant didn’t tire, and all his attacks hadn’t slowed it down.

Additionally, using Metamagic didn’t only drain his MP; it also drained him mentally. A headache was building behind his eyes. It was only a matter of time; he couldn’t run away indefinitely. Either his body would give out, or he would master Metamagic – those were the only two options he would allow himself.

He wiped a bead of sweat off his brow and got back to work. His first couple of attempts at shrinking failed miserably. He lost control of the spell halfway through, letting it harmlessly fade into blue specks of energy, wasting his time and mana. As he improved, he made it past the initial stages of the shrinking process. He learned that all the flaws and deformities in Mana Bolt were magnified while it changed shape. He continued forward, careful to keep Mana Bolt’s shape smooth and flat.

Eventually, he got the alteration to work. The once elongated spear of mana shrunk to the length of a hand, slightly bigger than its unmodified form. Jagged protrusions stuck out of it at odd angles, evidence of the strain the spell was under. It wouldn’t last for long; the spell was unstable because of its poor construction.

The formation of mana left a blue trail as it streaked through the air, leaking energy. Sparks flew as it impacted the giant's right elbow; it cut all the way through the stone with a horrendous grinding noise, leaving a tennis ball sized hole. The spike exited the golem then harmlessly disintegrated.

Aaron smiled; his experimentation had resulted in success. Though at this point, it may be too late. The spell had great penetrative power, but its area of effect was limited. Compared to the thirty-foot-tall giant's total mass, a tennis ball sized hole was nothing. At this rate, he wouldn’t have enough mana to finish the job. He needed to kick things up a gear.

He slowly formed another modified Mana Bolt as he ran away. This one was slightly better constructed; he could feel it. He recalled all the points he had hit on the golem; he hadn’t been firing at random. He had been systematically testing its defenses, searching for a weak point. He hadn’t found one yet, either because his attacks hadn’t cut deep enough, or he had simply missed it. Whatever the case may be, he had narrowed down the list of places to attack. The monster had to have a brain or some other organ controlling its actions. All he had to do was find it.

For the first time in the fight, Aaron stopped running away. He had to get close to deal more damage. Without the slightest look of surprise, the golem responded to his change in actions. It swiped its hand out at him. He grinned; he had seen this exact attack over a hundred times by now. He slid under the attack like a baseball player sliding into home base. He hopped to his feet and continued forward till he was directly underneath the golem.

Its feet clumsily moved, trying to crush him. He was barely able to avoid them. Sprays of rocky shrapnel hit him, covering him in small cuts. However, it didn’t matter; he was in position. He shot the spear of mana up diagonally into its upper leg. The mana tore through the giant’s body, exiting in its stomach. Light shined through the hole; it was a clean cut.

He dove out of the way of a retaliatory strike and once more went on the defensive. He played a dangerous game of tag with the golem as he prepared another modified Mana Bolt.

The risk he had taken had paid off. A vertical attack was able to cut through more of the golem than a horizontal one. It did place him in significantly more danger, and he had been minorly injured, but he felt it was worth it. He couldn’t win the fight if he played things safe. He had to deal the maximum amount of damage he could with his remaining mana.

The spike of mana finished forming in his hand. He turned once more. The ground was littered with holes from where the golem had smashed its hands into the ground, but his footing was sure; some debris wouldn’t slow him down.

He sprinted forward – the golem raised both arms, preparing a devastating smash. Aaron didn’t slow. Like a hammer, its arms struck the ground, causing it to collapse underneath its immense strength. An explosion of rock and wind-blasted forward, pelting Aaron. He endured it. Before the giant could remove its hands from the ground, Aaron hopped onto them and began running up its arm.

Each powerful stride brought him closer to its head. Nacho finally freed his arm and attempted to shake him off but was unsuccessful – with his increased stats, it would take more than some shaking to stop him. As a last-ditch effort, the golem slammed its hand onto its shoulder. Aaron jumped over the hand, propelling himself into the air over the giant’s head. Time slowed; he was in position.

His vision flashed blue as he launched his modified Mana Bolt straight down, directly into the center of the golem’s head. It cut into its skull, digging a tunnel without slowing. The skill flashed wildly as it crept deeper into the golem, penetrating its chest. With a satisfying crack, it exited the monster. Hidden deep inside the tunnel his attack had dug, a red core of what looked like crystal was illuminated by Mana Bolts blue light. That was its weak point; he had finally found it. He flipped through the air in a display of acrobatics he didn’t know he was capable of.

He looked down as he slowly fell through the air – the landing was going to hurt; he hadn’t thought of that part. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on the perspective, he didn’t touch the ground. Nacho twisted at an unnatural angle and swung his arm through the air harder than ever before.

Aaron’s eyes widened. There was nowhere to dodge. He couldn’t move. All he could do was minimize the impact. He fired as many Mana Bolts as he could, trying to slow down Nacho’s giant fist. Regardless of his efforts, the attack connected, clipping his left side. Bones broke, and ligaments tore as he was launched through the air. Like a football, he spun through the cavern, till he eventually came to a painful stop. He crashed into the cave wall with such force that it cracked in a spider web pattern. Limply, he fell to the ground.

He clenched his jaw as he picked himself up. The world wouldn’t stop spinning. Even with doing what he could to minimize the impact, it felt like he had broken every bone in his body. He checked his [Status] screen. A single hit had taken him below 30% HP.

The golem slowly bounded towards him – tireless in its actions. Nacho was slow, but he hit like a truck. Another hit, even a glancing one, and he would be done for.

He tried to clench his fists but found one of them wouldn’t move. The hit had broken his left hand – among a collection of other bones on his left side. Luckily, his right arm was fully operational. However, with how injured he was, he doubted he could still fight. Even his mana reserves were beginning to run low; he only had around 150 left.

He winced in pain as he was forced to dodge one of the golems strikes. He barely got out of the way in time. The simple movement made black spots dance in his vision.

He forced himself to run away from the monster. His lungs burned, desperate for air. However, each breath he took caused his broken ribs to cry out in pain, leading to him losing stamina at a much faster rate. Additionally, every movement he made jostled the broken bones in his left arm. He couldn’t keep doing this; the pain was too great, he wanted to just lay down and give up.

He barely got out of the way as the golem slammed its fist into the ground. Shrapnel dug into his back. There was no way he could win; he needed to run away. He searched the cavern. His heart dropped; the entrance had disappeared. He was stuck in the cave; he needed someplace else to hide.

He scanned the cave once more. Theoretically, he could hide in the bushes the golem was growing. He doubted he would be able to stay hidden for long there. The monster’s immense height meant that hiding below it would be ineffective. He noticed the medley of cracked rock and holes in the wall where his Mana Bolts had gone astray. A plan began to form in his concussed mind.

First, he used Metamagic once more to raise the brightness of Mana Bolt as high as he could. Maybe it was because he was much better at Metamagic now, or maybe, it was because raising the brightness was part of the Path’s official description, whatever the reason, the skill eagerly followed his command. He released the spell, blinding the golem.

He immediately sprinted to the far side of the cavern. Adrenaline rushed through his bloodstream in insane amounts, helping to dampen the pain. His body could tell that the situation was life or death. If this plan failed, he would certainly die. While running, he started the second part of his plan.

He spent 100 MP to dig a series of holes into the wall. The gaps in between them were large, about ten feet. However, with his increased strength, he should be able to manage.

Faster than he would have preferred, the golem recovered from its blindness. It lumbered towards him like a toddler with super strength. He turned away from the moving rock; he needed his full attention focused on escaping. As an afterthought, he activated Stealth.

He ran into the wall at full speed. His momentum carried him three large steps up the wall before he was forced to jump upward and grab ahold of an indent he had carved out with Mana Bolt. His fingers dug into the handhold, supporting his weight with only one arm. He glanced down; his initial move had carried him twenty feet up the wall.

Now came the hard part. He slammed his feet into the wall, forcing them to find purchase. It was slightly curved with protrusion marking its surface, making the task easier. If the wall was completely smooth, he doubted it would have been possible to climb; its rough texture helped him immensely. He bent his legs then sprang forward, using his arm to launch himself up the wall.

He flew forward for a second before catching himself on another handhold. A feat like this never would have been possible before the introduction of the System. But, now he was four times as strong as the average man; while still weighing the same amount as an average man. This combination allowed him to access an insane amount of mobility when he put his mind to it.

He quickly ascended three more handholds in the same way. Nacho slammed the wall disrupting his rhythm. Stealth wouldn’t keep him hidden indefinitely, especially when he was in such an exposed position. He held onto the wall for dear life as Nacho pounded on it. His arm shook, but he refused to let go. Eventually, the golem stopped its assault, realizing that Aaron was out of his grasp. Aaron didn’t look back to see what the golem was doing.

He used every muscle fiber in his body to force his way up the wall, one handhold at a time. As he passed the eleventh handhold. A boulder smashed into the wall, 15 feet to his left. Debris sprayed his face, almost making him lose his grip. He glanced back; the golem was punching the ground, digging out large rocks.

The remainder of his climb was the hardest part. Not only did his exhaustion reach its peak, but the golem relentlessly threw boulders at him.

None of them got close to hitting him, but the added distraction and the occasional shard of rock stabbing into him wasn’t appreciated. After what felt like an eternity, he reached the top of the cavern.

Here he would execute the third part of his plan. He stabilized his legs as best he could. He wasn’t stable enough. He bit into a small ledge with his teeth for extra stability, then while his hand was still in the hole, he used Mana Bolt at an angle. Rock cut into his hand as the hole widened. He repeated the process, emptying his entire mana pool. Each bolt dug through multiple feet of rock, widening the hole ever so slightly. After using Mana Bolt ten times, it was barely large enough to climb into.

With a bleeding hand, he shoveled crushed rock out of the hole. Once it was clear, he climbed into his alcove. It was cramped, barely tall enough for him to sit up, and he felt like he was constantly in danger of falling off the edge, but he was safe from the golem up here. Even with its immense strength, the monster couldn’t throw boulders hundreds of feet through the air.

The thought of the guardian of the cave sparked immense anger in him. How dare that fool do this to him. He closed his eyes and angrily meditated. He would get revenge on that fucking piece of stupid rock if it was the last thing he did.

An hour later, his bloodshot eyes snapped open. In that time, he had recovered 119 MP. His body was still a mess, but he was ready to get revenge. Each spark of pain from his body only served to fuel his anger. From this range, a modified Mana Bolt wouldn’t be very effective. Due to his shoddy construction, they constantly leaked mana once released. The spell would lose most of its power once it reached the enemy. If only it was faster.

He cursed himself. How could he have been so stupid? He had an easy way to solve all his problems. He opened up his Skill Path’s screen and tried to put points into Speed 1. Nothing happened. It seemed while he was in the challenge, he wasn’t able to complete any other Paths.

That left him with only Explosive Mark. Which had a short-range, so he struggled to imagine how it could be useful. Hypothetically, he could place it on one of the stalactites and drop it onto the golem, but that seemed highly inaccurate, and the monster was already tougher than its surroundings; dropping them on it would do nothing.

An idea struck him. What was stopping him from placing Explosive Mark onto a rock, then dropping it on the golem? Nothing, the skill description implied it should work as long as it was placed on a flat surface.

Using Mana Bolt, he cut out a large rock, widening his alcove quite a bit in the process. He wasn’t very precise in his methods. Most of the rocks were crushed before he could extract them. It didn’t matter; he had all the time in the world up here.

To his surprise, he was able to form an Explosive Mark on a chunk of rock no larger than a laptop. He casually chucked it at the golem and watched it fall with glee. He was a bit off the mark, but it didn’t matter. As the rock neared the golem’s head, he activated the skill. It detonated, blowing off a chunk of its face and knocking it onto the floor.

He activated Stealth to remain hidden from any retaliation. It wasn’t likely that anything the golem could do could reach him, but there was no point in risking it. He repressed a maniacal laugh as the golem failed to locate where the attack had come from. Its small brain wasn’t able to understand what was happening.

Aaron entered a cycle of meditation and dropping explosive rocks on the golem. Time flew by as he entered a trance-like state. All that mattered was winning. He wouldn’t fail. Each hour, he would drop two Explosive Marks on the monster, spending his mana almost as fast as he regenerated it. Each hour the golem would fruitlessly try to attack him. Its attack never reached him – he was too far up.

Time ticked by, but his determination never wavered. The constant searing pain in his broken arm was enough to keep him on track. The only risk to his life was starving to death. Which he didn’t think was very likely. By the 20th explosion, enough of the golem's chest had been blown away that its red core was now exposed.

He dropped a final Explosive Mark, the golem’s core shattered. The magic holding it together stopped working, and the monster dropped to the ground, lifeless. A wave of relief flowed through him; he had won. It had pushed him to his limit, but he had done it.

The world flashed, and he was transported back to the shed. To his surprise, not a single second had passed in the real world. Even his wounds hadn't transferred over. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say he imagined the whole thing. There was no physical evidence of it ever taking place. A blue screen appeared.

Challenge Path Complete. Calculating rewards.

…

Back in the cavern, a rock with a familiar blue engraving fell from the ceiling and joined the unending tide of weapons. It tumbled twice, ending up buried under a longsword and a bow. It twinkled with power, waiting to be picked.

Within Nacho’s cavern, his stone body reformed piece by piece. He stood and dusted himself off; it was always important to look presentable, the large mountain’s advice rang through his mind. One day he wanted to be that big.

Determinedly, he picked up his pale of water. He had roses to water and bushes to trim; the blue man said he would have visitors soon. Besides, it filled him with joy watching his friends grow big and strong. He would tend to the garden even if he didn’t have visitors.

His eyes widened in shock as he looked over his home; how had his garden become so unorderly? This wouldn’t do! First impressions were important. He went to work improving his garden till he was interrupted by a strange bird-like creature.

Nacho waved from the bushes and put down his water pail, happy to finally have a guest. “Hi! You’re small.”

The visitor didn’t respond, instead choosing to launch a series of sparkly blue balls at him. He smiled as the pretty lights neared. They tickled his skin. As they made contact, a blood-red rune activated within his core, and he was filled with thoughts of violence.

Once again, a battle raged throughout the cavern.