Next morning, Jason decided it was time to go and play with the axolotls. He assumed that their electricity producing and or storing organs would be worth a shiny copper or two. Though he also admitted to himself that those damn amphibians had gotten the best of him and he wasn’t going to stand for it.

  With a deep breath, Jason curled his hands into fist and charged his body with Energy. Even with his unique situation, electricity can mess a body up good and there was one quick solution. Flood yourself with power. After all, if the body was viewed as a cup and electricity oil, it is a little hard to put the oil in if the cup is already full of water.

  That won’t stop the damage, but not being paralyzed is quite beneficial to not dying, even if it did tend to be wasteful. Jason was relatively fine with his Energy and Qi users have it easy, but those Mana users get drained dry. Of course, mages tend to have a variety of shields and defense to deal with such things. Except for the fact that electricity isn’t exactly common, so people tend not to be prepared for it.

  Other elements? Shields and resistances for days. Ask a mage to protect you from a fire attack and they’ll pull out a full spellbook of just protections against fire. Jason even has a few techniques he could pull out if it came to it. After all, fire attacks tend to be more about heat early on. You only get into more primal sorts of fire with a higher power level and a greater understanding.

  One of the fun ones that Jason had seen in his past was cold fire. Defenses against fire tend to be aimed at heat early on, so don’t work against it. Of course, until you drill down into the more conceptual defenses and attacks there will always be some interesting holes for others to take advantage of. Jason knew more than a few people across all his lives who thought that because of this you shouldn’t ever focus on a single element or ability.

  That was nonsense of course. The difficulty to rise to the top was honestly about the same with the big differences tending to be when it got more difficult and annoying things like personal talent. A useful thing to know for Jason as he was on a similar path. Most people would say that Energy based unarmed martial arts can only take you so far.

  Others would go on about how you pack a ranged attack or other similar bits of “common sense”. Sure, just like anything else, common sense can take you to the top. The only thing is that all the stories and myths from both now and then are about those who denied common sense. The hero was supremely talented, their sword was blessed by the gods, their understanding was realms ahead of others, and so many other tropes. Rarely would you find someone at the top who just followed the path set in the past. So rare is this, in fact, to break through with that method after a certain point could almost be seen as breaking common sense.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Jason snorts, his mind had gotten a little side tracked there as a bit of a heart demon of sorts had taken hold. Questions about his future however aren’t enough to sway his path. So he does a few stretches, cleans up the fire from his breakfast, places Lily in her harness, and heads back towards the lake. The axolotls likely were a mana variant since they have a ranged attack and he was sure that would make for a big payday. While Qi based lightning attacks did give the rare bit of ranged damage, those who really go for peaking their damage are the mages.

  The place he tried to camp last night is just ahead of him. While Jason had been smart enough to have his backpack so he could grab it, that still meant a bunch of his stuff was left there. Most important though is his warning system. Sure, the bells aren’t too expensive or fancy, but they do the job.

  So, of course, he walks right up to his camp and begins to gather everything up and other such things as making sure the fire is completely out. Quite the tempting target and so when the giant electric axolotls don’t take it Jason is just a bit disappointed. Then again, it did take until later in the night for them to attack him so maybe they needed to gather up.

  With that in mind, Jason decides to take the time to meditate right smack dab in the middle of the small peninsula. As you do. Then from there, it took three or four hours before something happened.

  The first sign of trouble was the smell of ozone. Not exactly all that much warning, but Jason had been prepared. Trying to stay ready for that long isn’t exactly a walk in the park, mind you. He got around this by using a method of meditation that paid attention to the environment around him as a way to take one’s mind off internal thoughts. So while he wasn’t specifically trying to keep an eye out, when the ozone hit, he reacted almost without thought.

  A good thing too, as just like last night, the axolotls all fired their attacks off at the same time. Their coordination wasn’t perfect, but that helped in this situation as while Jason managed to dodge most of the attacks, a couple still had a moment to readjust their aim. They didn’t manage a direct hit, but Jason still lost a couple HP from it.

  Jason, having just dodged, turns his momentum into a roll and pops up into a standing position. Feet locked to the ground he stops with an unnatural suddenness and bolts to the left. He didn’t know if there were any axolotls in that direction, but if there were, one of them would be his target. He knew that taking them all on would just be a recipe for disaster so needed to be quick about it.

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