Might as Well

For a moment he centered himself, trying to get rid of the doubt as the mana continued to swell inside the glaring demonic witch, then did something he had been considering for a while.

He could channel unattributed mana through his own body. It also worked with wind and shadow-attributed mana. But what happens when he did it with the mana that made up the Clean spell?

The spell was special in that it affected physical items, like germs, dust, and other microscopic detritus, as well as magical stains and contaminations. Granted, they were affected less than their physical counterparts, but they were still affected.

Thus, if that mana suffused his body, then it could affect everything that would come into contact with it. He was still workshopping ideas, while not really sure how the mana would affect him. The theory was good, but he had no memories of the other Sam ever seeing something like that.

Clean was considered an OP spell by everyone, as it could deal with a lot of negative status effect skills and much more, but there were no memories of people using it on themselves.

Still, what better situation to try a wildly experimental technique than when a demonic witch, in the middle of the place of their power, sucking up enough mana to stagger an archmage, was burning their very life force to kill him with a puppet made of a real-life person.

Or maybe an alchemical creation… One never knew with witches.

However, Sam didn’t have enough time to contemplate before the face of the demon twisted and she clicked her tongue.

“It seems my darling pet is not up to the task… maybe you’ll be better, eh, darling?” she spoke, venom dripping from her words as she twisted her hand around, causing the body of the woman to lock up, her eyes bulging out and letting out a silent scream of pain, as mana spiked and before Sam could intervene the body of the woman exploded into the dark cloud of pestilence and horrible emotions.

Meanwhile, the witch was just standing there, still in front of her hut, pointing at him with her long-nailed hairy and bony finger while her face was open, screeching, the rictus of pain sharpening and distorting her features even more, eyes glaring at him with more hatred than Sam had seen in multiple lifetimes.

He began casting the Clean spell but instead of casting it, he let the mana build up in the spell structure, then using the practice he got with his other spells and techniques, he began channeling through his body.

At first, the spell structure resisted – that is, the system had no idea what he was doing – but then, as if a barrier was broken, the mana ready to clean everything rushed through his body, causing some weird feelings, but he powered through them and watched as his body began to glow with soft blue light, joining his weapon.

Just in time to cast his shield spell as the cloud of vicious pestilent magic reached him.

It plowed through several layers, but most of the spell was stopped by the sheer amount of mana he pushed into those shields, letting most of the spell fly through the air next to him, only a few wisps reaching his body, which to his relief were vaporized with a quiet hiss by his new spell.

Sam grinned and called out.

“Now!”

Thanks to the shoddy and eclectic construction of the hut, the roof of the hut was dotted with all sorts of shapes and items – mostly things from probable victims of the demonic witch – which created a good number of shadows.

Which enabled Sam’s loyal companion, the shadow wolf Lucky, to use it for travel.

The demonic witch was powerful, empowered by time, effort, countless rituals, and sacrifices, but even then, when a three-hundred-pound wolf falls on somebody, they – in general – don’t enjoy the experience.

There was a quiet, but despairing ooff, as spaceship Lucky landed, enough to break the enemy’s spell and allow Sam space to spring forward and drive his enchanted and empowered sword between the eyes of the witch.

Sam watched as a gamut of emotions ran through the cruel eyes, including anger, despair, fear, pain, and, for some reason, deep shame, before they went flat and the body and the mana went still.

Lucky then stood up and Sam saw the reason behind the deep shame as two precious objects were removed from the demon’s head.

Sam had to wince at the sight. “Well… you were evil but I doubt even you deserve this…” he murmured as he watched the body disappear into the ether, leaving behind loot. There was a bag, with a very recognizable sign of the alchemist guild, which probably meant it held alchemical ingredients (though he would check them over later, just in case), a gnarly wand dripping dark energy, several odds and ends that could be sold for a decent amount of money, and finally, several books.

He scooped them up and into his inventory for later, and then quickly stepped into the hut to search the building as he called out to Lucky.

“Patrol, buddy! Call me if you find anything!”

“Wuff!” came the reply from the loyal companion, and Sam was free to take in the horrible building.

It looked just like he expected. A giant cauldron in the middle, bubbling with some disgusting concoction that the witch was in the middle of brewing when he arrived and interrupted her. There were all sorts of things hanging from the walls, including bones, feathers, and skin pieces, intermixed with drying plants, with all sorts of pots and pans on makeshift shelves. In the back, he saw a curtain almost fully hiding a sleeping area with a bed and a wonky-looking wardrobe made of almost rotten wood.

He put his hand on his hip and let out a sigh.

“Welp, time to toss the place!”

In the end, he found a rather ratty journal, detailing the witch’s attempt at immortality – because why be original – and her attempts to harness the power in Anor’s Blessing. A map of several locations she determined would be able to grow the devil’s cabbage in the area, and a very detailed, almost flowery description of how she captured, addicted then ritualistically altered a random hiker she had taken a liking to, into her own personal servant and bait.

Very gnarly stuff…

He also found some more reagents, alchemical ingredients, and some tools that were perfect for alchemists, plus a small chest hidden in the depths of the wonky wardrobe containing the coins the witch stole from the adventurers.

Good haul for a fight this hard – at least for other people – but nothing to him. Still, free money was free money.

A few minutes later, after searching the drained and dry grounds for anything else, Sam stood at the edge of the witch’s home and cast two spells as Lucky watched from next to him.

The wind picked up into a very controlled storm, swirling around the area as he kept tight control over it, then he raised his other hand, and a simple spark of fire was launched forward, instantly igniting the swirling wind, and creating a firestorm.

The duo watched quietly as the firestorm slowly but surely cleansed the area of the influence of the witch.

Sam waited until the entire area was nothing but ash, then patted Lucky on the head.

“Let’s go, buddy…”

The wolf let out a sad whine and followed him.

“Thank you, great hero! May Anor bless you!” cried out the priestess after listening to Sam recount his adventure. The rest of the priestesses were standing or sitting around and listening with rapt attention.

Sam just bowed his head a little. “No trouble, ma’am.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the map of fertile soil he found in the witch’s hut. “I also found this while out and about,” he said, intent on maximizing the profits from his adventure.

The priestesses took the map, unrolled it, and gathered around it, and a few seconds later one of them gasped as they pointed at one point.

“One more place for Anor to spread his blessing! We have been blessed!”

“Quick! Now that the danger has passed, we must go and survey the area!

“Get the hoe!”

“No! Leave Rachel alone, she is tired!”

“I got the hiking boots!”

Sam just watched as they began to celebrate with a small smile as notification sounds began to go off in his head.

The head priestess turned to him and smiled at him.

“My dear hero, this is indeed an excellent gift. I know that heroes prefer different things compared to us, regular folks, thus I would like to offer a few things…

In the end, he was given even more drugs, a few scrolls containing spells inscribed on them by the priests, and half a dozen rituals that would help with farming and plant husbandry.

Then, he asked for a private location where he could meditate and was led behind the abbey where the carefully taken care of grassy yard was sparsely filled with gazebos, gently separated by a few meticulously trimmed bushes and trees allowing the priestesses to enjoy the gentle wind blowing through the area.

He was led to one of the gazebos far from the others and left to his devices by a bowing priestess.

First, he called out Lucky, and after petting the wolf for a little while, he sent the animal to run around and have fun. He watched for a while as Lucky enjoyed the free time, and then he saw a few ladies appearing with treats and toys and knew that his companion was in safe hands.

Sam took a seat, spent a few moments just stretching and relaxing, and then with a great sigh he opened his notification screen.

Instantly, he was almost blinded by the list that appeared.

He poked around a little to condense it into one screen, because it was just so awesome and satisfying to see it in one place.

[You found the Abbey of Anor!]

[You were tasked by the abbess of the Abbey of Anor to alleviate their issues!]

[You found the hidden grotto of the demonic witch!]

[You managed to defeat the demonic witch!]

[You managed to complete the task set forth and received a reward from the abbess!]

[Anor grants you their blessing for aiding their worshippers, doubling your experience gained for your deeds!]

[You increased the effectiveness of the Abbey of Anor!]

[Anor grants you their blessing for aiding in spreading their worship, doubling your experience gained for your deeds!]

[You gained the title, Blessed!]

[Blessed: You have been blessed by a god, granting you 5% extra experience points when completing a quest for a god.]

The first part was already juicy. Based on the numbers, apparently, the system used the title to calculate his gains, then doubled the experience point gain and doubled it again.

‘I love it when a plan comes together!’ he celebrated in his mind. It was rare to have two ‘god quests’ next to each other, and this easy to complete. At least for him. Without his know-how, that witch would have needed an entire party to destroy.

And with two quests that needed a full party to complete and quadrupled rewards… well, by his calculations, it would be just enough.

[Congratulations! You’ve leveled up!]

[You’re now Level 101!]

[Gained 4 unassigned attribute points!]

[Thanks to your incredible luck at…everything, you gained 2 LUK!]

And it seems he was right as he saw his experience point gauge was sitting at the sweet two-point-three percentage. Before he dealt with the consequences of that, he wanted to quickly go over the skill rewards. He added the four free points to Strength and then continued to read.

[Mana Manipulation is now Level 89!]

[Mana Surge is now Level 3!]

[Mana Scales is now Level 120!]

[Mana Unraveling is now Level 14!]

[Spell Matrix is now Level 40!]

[Mana Construct is now Level 84!]

[Infusion is now Level 5!]

[Complexity is now Level 1!]

[Clean VI is now level 10!]

[You gained the skill Clean VII!]

[Clean VII: Level 0/10 (0%) (Active) Cleaning is your life. This spell allows you to clean an even greater area than previously. Physical and magical contaminants are much easier to clean. Grants a further 5% immunity to diseases per skill level. Above a certain level, the spell only weakens contaminants.]

[Clean VII is now Level 9!]

Well, that was a very rapid increase in skill level. But he was very happy as seven was a very potent magical number. At least he hoped so…

[Clean Aura is now Level 6!]

[Air Purification is now Level 7!]

[Wind Mana Manipulation is now Level 93!]

[Greater Wind Affinity is now Level 83!]

[Shredding Wind is now Level 1!]

[Battle Meditation is now Level 84!]

[Clear Mind is now Level 5!]

[Steady Mind is now Level 1!]

[Spirit Link is now Level 97!]

[Spirit Protection is now Level 39!]

[Bleedover is now Level 4!]

[Shadow of the Dragon is now Level 24!]

[Greater Shadow Affinity is now Level 69!]

[The Way of the Forerunner is now Level 39!]

[Corruption Resistance is now Level 39!]

[Blood Magic Resistance is now Level 24!]

[Adaptive Coordination is now Level 52!]

[You gained the subskill, Lightbulb Moment!]

[Lightbulb Moment: Level 0/5 (0%) (Passive) Creating new combinations is a child’s play to you. When you create a new combination, the first time you are successful, the mana cost is decreased by 8,4% per skill level.]

Altogether, he was very satisfied. Then he turned his attention to the new skills.

[You suffused your body with cleaning energy, you gained the skill Pure Body!]

[Pure Body: Level 0/25 (0%) (Active) Your body is a temple and you keep that temple pretty clean. Any incoming damage that would negatively affect your body is decreased by 1% per skill level.]

Sam had to blink at the skill. It was really surprising to see a monk-specific skill achieved by basically casting a cleaning spell on his own body. Usually, people had to find monasteries with martial-arts-focused monks and spend a considerable amount of time to achieve the skill.

‘Maybe it’s the multiple roads leading to the same destination…’ he mused.

[You like cleaning and it seems to be working. You gain the skill Cleaning Affinity!]

[Cleaning Affinity: Level 0/100 (0%) (Passive) You have a great affinity for cleaning things. Despite never holding a broom. Go you. Beings that like cleaning will be favorable to you. Beware of maids. The cost of the cleaning spells and skills is reduced and their power is increased by 0,5% for each skill level.]

Chuckling to himself, he closed the screens, then his eyes before settling in a comfortable position, and turned his focus inward to the bubbling and churning mana in his core.

It was time to take one more step toward the future…