I wonder… What would happen if I tried recreating my lost parts with my spirit transformation? I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to add mass to myself while transforming, but what if I supplemented the skill with mana? What would happen when I undid transformation? Would the regenerated parts remain?

I immediately tried my idea, I transformed into ethereal form and started sensing for mana. The two intertwined flows that I sensed still gave me a massive pain, but in the ethereal form it was somewhat bearable. Still, there was no way I would attempt using any magic in that state, the only thing I was brave enough to do, was to drain a little of the first flow into my body. I wasn’t really sure what was meaning of the second one, but I was too afraid of using it for now.

As soon as I felt my form swell, I cut my mana sense and breathed in relief. Even without a real body to feel pain, my mana sense still managed to hurt me so much. I was grateful for a gift of infinite mana, but crippling my magic in the process wasn’t really worth it.

The flying enemies were slowly approaching me, so I decided to waste no more time and took on the task of reshaping my body. It was pretty easy to return myself to shape, and in the end I looked identical to how I started the fight, with both sickles back and with no dent on my chitinous skin.

[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [Transform spirit lvl. 4] ]

Sweet, but what will happen when I undo my transformation?

I could only do it and see the results. And I have to say, they were extremely surprising. I thought that either my lost parts would be still missing, or would just normally materialize from the mana I added to my spirit, but somehow, everywhere that I used mana as filling was now a glowing replica of my lost parts.

After a moment, something even weirder happened. My flesh started bubbling and growing, filling out these glowing parts, then gaining armor anew, effectively regenerating everything. I think, that the mana I used acted out as an extremely potent healing spell, and my body regenerated to fill out the shape of my spirit.

For some reason, after I filled out the missing parts, the feeling of mana drain didn’t appear. When I transformed my front limbs into sickles, it required a constant usage of mana to keep them in that form, even now they were draining some, but every other part I just regenerated was perfectly passive. Maybe there’s other template for how my body should look like other than a spirit, and keeping a different form comes at a cost?

[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [Regeneration lvl. 1] ]

Sweet, that will give me some room for ignoring lesser scratches. Now, time to go back to battle. I jumped from the ceiling, using as much power as possible and directed my sickles to my front. As predicted, my enemies were clumped up, and I didn’t have to worry about aiming, I just pierced through tens, or maybe hundreds of them while falling from the sky.

[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [Instant kill lvl. 4] ]

Going through countless bodies slowed my fall and I landed on one of my enemies. I was effectively douched in acid, but I switched to spirit form and it fell right through me. Simultaneously I filled myself with mana again to regenerate whatever damage I got. It was pretty easy after doing it once, I could do it without focusing much on the mana sense.

[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [Regeneration lvl. 2] ]

My rampage started anew.

[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [3D Maneuver lvl. 3] ]

I cut and slashed.

[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [Cutting enhancement lvl. 3] ]

I got mercilessly pummeled from every side.

[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [Natural armor lvl. 2] ]

I regenerated damage while dodging attacks.

[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [Parallel thought lvl. 7] ]
[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [Evasion lvl. 4] ]

I ignored the pain.

[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [Pain resistance lvl. 2] ]

I have slain countless enemies.

[Obtained enough experience. Level risen to 20]

I moved through the air like a bird.

[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [3D Maneuver lvl. 4] ]
[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [Fly lvl. 2] ]

Endless slaughter, enemies falling from air, endless pain from getting hit, endless regeneration from my infinite mana. I became effectively immortal thanks to my infinite resources, but I still could get killed if I encountered something stronger than me.

There was more space opening in air, as I thinned out enemies, skills still leveling up but I no longer paid them any mind. I just shut out everything apart from my will to survive and instinct to fight. I turned myself into mindless killing machine, so even the pain had no way of moving me.

I’m pretty sure I just lost half of my body to an attack from one of the fireflies that suddenly started throwing fireballs at me, but I didn’t mind. I just regenerated it while falling, and soon took my revenge by slicing the annoying insect in half.

Even though I wasn’t really aware of it, my mind was working in a massive overdrive to manage my fighting strategy. All of my processing power was focused on cutting enemies and regenerating my body, there was no place for any other thought. Even though the level of my skills was grooving steadily, and some of them getting closer to level ten, I still didn’t notice.

It was just an endless cycle of hitting, getting hit and repeat. At some point I even stopped bothering with evasion, since I could deem all damage irrelevant thanks to the infinite mana.

[ [Transform body lvl. 1] was derived from the [Transform spirit lvl. MAX] ]

Pretty useless huh? I noticed one of my skills evolving because that was something pretty important, but the only thing that was really different now was that the passive drain from my sickles was gone. I guess I can now change the shape of my body for free and without going into [Spirit form], but I will still need to do that if I want to regenerate myself with mana.

In the end, pretty useless, and my fight still continued.