It was a long climb but I made it. I talked to some spirits and it seems the humans have been abducting spirits from this spot for almost 3 centuries and that it only increased in the last 2 years. I asked if they knew why this was but they thought it had something to do with those goggles. I started thinking, so about 2 years ago they got their hands on a 7t then. I don’t know much about 7t and I don''t think I''ve ever met one. I got hit by a random lightning bolt and fell down.


    Ouch! I circulated nature magic and looked around. A random lightning bolt hit me but that was unsurprising since lightning was raining down on this place, it reminded me of Raishin. I wonder what that guy is up to. Did he vaporize anything yet?


    I paid more attention and dodged some lightning bolts and arrived at the top. The top of this mountain wasn''t a peak… why do they call it Thunderpeak. It was a huge plateau with a large electrified lake and an insane amount of lightning spirits. This lake was larger than Boshi lake Major. This place was massive. I did notice that there didn''t seem to be many medium spirits or higher. Which was odd.


    The spirits seemed to notice me and were happy to see me. I asked them if they knew a spirit named Starbolt but they had no clue. The reason this place was filled with minor spirits was that all the stronger spirits moved away about a century ago when the need for lightning spirits increased. Where they went nobody knows but the minor spirits didn''t have that luxury. The few that were medium spirits have been here since they were minor spirits.


    I told them that I didn''t know how to help them, the best I could do was nuke that power plant. I dodged more lightning bolts and covered myself in [Pure water veil] but it got zapped to oblivion. I asked the spirits how they don''t get zapped constantly. Something about having the same or similar charge to the lightning. That''s very cool and easy to do with magic but how do I do that with leyline energy? Using the leyline version of [Thundercloak] helped but this version dealt damage to me… They basically told me to become lightning. It''s not impossible but difficult without magic. Most of my strong lightning attacks also dealt damage to my body so becoming lightning certainly would alleviate that problem.


    The training went pretty well until I got interrupted 2 weeks later by a group of humans.


    "Huh, what are you doing here? This place is dangerous, go home!" I''m training.


    "Can you do that somewhere else?" The humans were all suited up and were wearing goggles and had strange devices with them. This is a public place, right? I have as much of a right to be here as you guys.


    "You being here will interfere with our business!" Is your business so fragile that the presence of a kid interferes with it? I don''t think that''s my problem. The spirits had time to run away and hide because of this conversation.


    "Look, we only need 3 hours, you can come back afterward." What do you need 3 hours for?


    "How much?" How much, what?


    "For how much money will you leave?" Now it sounds like you guys are doing something suspicious. Hmm, either the same amount of money I possess or more.


    "Alright, how much is that?" 3.5 billion gold give or take.


    "Oh, come on that is bullshit, you know that, how much do you really want?" Well, I wasn''t wrong, I got 700 million gold per time loop in Boshi Town for 5 time loops. I was stinkin'' rich but these guys don''t know that. How about this, you leave the spirits alone and I will leave.


    "Shit, he knows! Is he a spirit mage?"


    "Doesn’t matter there is just 1 of him!" Just a question. It is well known that spirits get used for electricity or electronium mana, but does the general public know how the energy gets extracted and how the spirits get treated?


    Judging by their reaction most people don''t know how the spirits get treated, for all they know it could''ve been a contract or that the spirits got treated well. It seems that they don''t. That probably explains why you want me gone from here. You have 2 options. Disappear or I make you disappear.


    "Cool story kid, it''s 7 against 1, what are you going to do?" I looked up. It''s 6.


    "What?" They followed my gaze.


    A lightning bolt dropped on a guy who took off his rubber mask to scratch his head. He got fried and his head exploded as whatever what was in his head expanded and forcefully burst out of his skull.


    "Ugh, that idiot! We told him to keep the rubber masks on." Oh really? I dashed past and stole all the rubber masks.


    “Give it back!” I threw the masks off the mountain.


    Go for it. The humans hesitated. I sidestepped a lightning bolt and the humans dove away from another lightning bolt. We spent more time dealing with the random lightning bolts than dealing with each other. I just sidestepped the lightning bolts while the humans were putting all their effort into dodging them.


    Do I even need to do anything?


    I kicked a rock toward a human. He tripped and was unable to dodge the lightning bolt. He got fried but didn''t die instantly though.


    “We need to get out of here! We will be back and if you’re still here we will forcefully remove you!” They took their injured friend and left. They would certainly return with deadly force. I had mastered lightning in the last 2 weeks except for one important thing, which was becoming lightning. The damage I did to myself grew proportionally to my proficiency. I could do the thing where I used [Dagger Torrent], then [Accel Stop] and collapse the lightning into my body and become lightning like that but that also does damage to myself. I looked at my hands that I had to bandage up.


    This isn''t good, I might self-destruct before I figure this out. The upside is that I got some sort of minor resistance to shocks but it''s nothing to be proud of. I sat down and redirected a random lightning bolt. Bringing the lightning into my body and augmenting myself with it wasn''t doing the trick because the leyline variant hurts my body. Making it move outside my body also hurt me but only externally.


    What other options do I have?


    I asked the spirits for tips but they were out of ideas. One suggested to separate my spirit from my body but I had no clue how to do that and if I could reverse it even if I managed to. I couldn''t get an answer so I just went to sit down in a corner. Getting zapped so often had an unintended effect.


    I developed insomnia. It might be temporary but I’ve hardly slept the last week. I didn''t necessarily need sleep on a regular basis as humans do but the nights are quite boring when there’s nothing to do. And I couldn''t keep on training because I would get fatigued and that would certainly suck if I was unable to sleep. At least getting zapped this often energized me and restored my stamina for some reason. My tails were doing overtime trying to find out how to solve this problem.


    My insomnia made me try something. I had my eyes closed and tried to feel the changes in electrical charges around me. I could feel charges building and driving away something before it dropped down. It felt like a charge was building up in the sky and the place that would get hit got its charge driven away to create a charge difference.


    My attempts to aim the random lightning bolts, by driving the charge away from certain spots, worked like a charm. I tried it out on myself thinking that this might be the answer to my problem but I either got zapped from lightning jumping to me or I discharged lightning randomly because of the charge buildup. This hurt too but not as much. I circulated nature energy to stop my fingers from bleeding and combat the numbness and tingling. I was more beat up from something I did to myself than any other enemy I’ve fought in this last year. The electric eel came the closest. And not a real enemy but the hurricane room probably hurt me the second most I ended up with so many bruises.


    I played around with moving the charge around when I started hearing a lot of noise. 12 humans in super sturdy rubber suits were scaling the mountain and 2 groups of 4 were carrying some weird machine. It seemed like a pain to carry so it must be very important. I told the spirits to go and hide. That was easier said than done. It was hard for over 200 000 lightning spirits to hide just like that.


    I greeted the humans with some lightning bolts by moving the charge around. The humans were getting sniped by lightning bolts that were supposed to be random. They were well prepared so that did nothing to them until I decided to focus multiple lightning bolts on a spot in their path and created a crater. This didn''t stop them however and they finally arrived at the peak.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    “As I said! Huff puff! We are back!” Rubber suit #1 said. Came to pay me my 3.5 billion gold?


    “Not a chance! Guys, let''s do it!” They put the devices down.


    "It''s a shame Joe Vegghian disappeared; we could have used his expertise in guns."


    "Do you think he got caught in the judgment bolt?" Rubber suit #2 asked. Judgment bolt?


    "Yes, something must have pissed off a god and he delivered judgment, it has to be, no mortal can use orange lightning like that. Joe could but only after storing and amplifying it for 2 months." Rubber suit #1 replied.


    "Well, he went to investigate something and never returned, he was the only one who could help Itris out of this mess…" Rubber suit #3 explained.


    I got close to the device in the meantime and was inspecting it.


    Eubber suit # 1 noticed me. "Dafuq, do you think you''re doing?" Don''t worry I won’t touch it. Oh, what does this do?


    "I thought you said you wouldn''t touch anything!" Do you always listen to your opponents? The battle has already started. Lightning bolts were targeting the humans in their rubber suits.


    "We have to do it!" Rubber suit #1 commanded.


    Some attacks got flung my way and I jumped back. They all gathered around the devices they brought and did something. It started unfolding and revealing its true form.


    Hey come on that''s not fair you can''t fight me with something that cool! The devices unfolded into halves of a metal golem, no wait not a metal golem a mechanical robot. The humans entered it and the 2 parts combined and made a 30 m tall metal robot. It reminded me of the last boss in the Corundum dungeon but this one is less advanced.


    "This is Joe''s last invention! Die brat!" The robot aimed its palm at me and charged something that I assumed was a laser. I dashed toward the robot''s feet and started using [High Voltage]. The robot couldn''t hit me when I was this close but [High Voltage] did absolutely nothing.


    "Hahaha do you really think lightning works against this masterpiece?!" Well, this thing runs on electricity so it should be sensitive to lightning somehow.


    "Fair point but it''s well protected so don''t bother!" I redirected some [Discharges] it sent at me and dodged lasers and punches. It had all kinds of weapons but none could hit me. The only attacks that were doing damage to me were my own attacks that were not [High Voltage], [Lightning Dragon Dance], [Lightning Umbrella] and of course [Dragon]. I used [Lightning pillar] but it hurt, it didn''t hurt before. What changed? [High Voltage], [Lightning Umbrella] and [Lightning pillar] were useless against this metal robot. I had to rely on red [Lightning Dragon dance] to put pressure on this thing but it was mostly ineffective. I tried to figure out what I''m doing differently with these techniques that don''t hurt me. Is it because I converted these from mana to leyline? But what about the dragon skills? And I converted [Lightning pillar] too but it hurts. I got hit by a purple laser. I could redirect some but still took most of it.


    "Ha! We finally hit you! So, you''re not invincible after all! Look at how much damage you took! Let''s shift to red lasers guys!" I hate lasers…


    The circulation of nature energy became the norm after I got hit by something, especially against lightning because its nature makes moving and executing precise movements difficult. The tingling and temporary paralysis wore off and I evaded a heavy punch. Some of the dragons assaulted the robot''s joints.


    I might have to use [Dragon] here. But will it do enough? I don''t think I can set up its full effect here. Lasers make using Dragonvein quite risky because those are one of the few things that are faster than me.


    A red laser got charged and I ducked away, breaking my stances. One of the dragons was dancing on the ambient leyline energy but the others disappeared. I looked at the lone dragon that wasn''t quite sentient but following the leyline flow. I had done this before when I let the nymphs find the dragons, why didn''t I use this earlier? I tried to start another [Lightning Dragon dance] but got interrupted by another red laser. Hey! Give it a rest! Those lasers are annoying.


    "You hear that guys? More lasers!" I heard cheering and the robot made noise and changed and grew 2 more arms. I got annoyed, I could use fire and melt these assholes but that won’t help me, I need to solve this with lightning. Melt them, eh? I inspected the robot to find out if it has a heatsink. I smiled; these assholes didn''t build a heatsink.


    Ok guys, playtime is over, this is your last chance to flee and go home!


    "Flee when we''re winning? You must be desperate!"


    "Yah! Let''s kill him and grab those spirits! I can’t believe the concert of Tails of Symphony got cancelled because of this guy!"


    "We can always catch their next concert, focus guys!" I had no idea what they were talking about but they gave me some breathing room by bickering. I had enough of this robot. I got my tails out and started [Tail Dynamo].


    "Hey guys… this looks bad… there are no races I know that have nine tails!"


    "Those glowing eyes, is it a vampire?"


    "Really? Since when do vampires have 9 tails and fox ears?" My tails were generating red lightning and I targeted the robot for a [God of Thunder]. I will just blast it with enough lightning to melt it. They stopped bickering and continued shooting lasers at me but the lasers got unraveled by the highly turbulent leyline energy around me.


    I can''t believe I''m using this again… My whole body was crackling and filled with red lightning. I dropped the [God of Thunder] on the robot. It took the blast for 10 seconds after which the lightning dissipated. I took a lot of damage from that and I had to yet again circulate nature energy. The robot was still fine… well not fine it seems to be powered down and the humans are yelling at each other to fix things. Only some parts of the robot worked. One part was its stupid laser but it''s aiming was off and it was shooting randomly.


    I guess it''s on its last legs.


    I started manipulating the charge on the top of the mountain. I was removing it all so the whole mountaintop will become the target of my next [God of Thunder]. I let some [Lightning Dragon dance] dragons dance on the ambient ley lines near the ground to distract the humans from how ugly the sky was starting to look. Defensive skills started to pile up, my multi-layer barrier, frost magic and [pure Water Veil] covered me because this is gonna hurt a lot. The humans slowly got more parts of their robot working. I fired up my [Tail Dynamo] again and I was going for orange lightning this time.


    "Guys, I think our sensors are broken. It indicates that the whole mountain top is a danger zone."


    "Hey guys I was thinking, didn''t that just now look like that judgment bolt from 2 weeks ago?"


    "Uh oh" Congratulations you found the culprit. Orange lightning surrounded my tails and I unleashed the strongest attack I''ve ever fired off. Orange lightning fell down from the sky like a laser and hit the whole mountain top. My defences got obliterated. So did the robot. It turned into a molten metal blob. The attack dissipated after 15 seconds. I coughed and circulated nature energy.


    I don''t think I should use this skill often. I lost 5 lives during this attack… It seems that I am my own worst enemy.


    The lake was obviously gone now. Just a deep hole. Some spirits got hit by that attack and were instantly sent back to the spirit world. Those that didn''t get hit started to feed off the residual energy. My body was all tingly so I watched as the spirits returned from their hiding spots. My body was in a bad shape, I might lose another life at this point. For the first time in 2 weeks, I felt extremely sleepy, I curled up in my tails and fell asleep.


    <hr>


    It was noisy. I woke up and the spirits were fighting off some humans. I saw a lot of medium spirits. Where did they come from? I seemed to have lost another life in my sleep but at least I felt better now.


    Down to 36 lives. The spirits drove the humans off successfully. They can defend themselves a bit better now. This hole bothered me so I shifted stance and used [Drowning Pulse] to fill it with water. Nothing was wrong with my stance but I made a mistake somewhere. I filled the hole with blue lightning instead of water. I also didn’t take damage. I looked at my hands.


    I was sure that I used the movements for water also the flow of leyline energy in my body was as how I would manipulate water although it was a continuous flow with bursts instead of just continuous bursts.


    I reconnected with the air leyline currents and used [Drowning pulse] again. This time the hole started to fill with water. I replicated the same mistake I did earlier. I let the leyline energy in my body flow like water but with bursts like how I use lightning. The hole started filling with blue lightning again. I sat down.


    The problem was how I moved the energy inside me and not my technique? I completely filled the hole with water and used my discovery to test out the lightning skills that used to hurt me. I didn''t test [God of Thunder] for obvious reasons but I didn''t hurt myself with the others. This did make my lightning weaker though. It was hard to reach purple like this and red was out of the question.


    A week was spent finding the perfect mix between power and not hurting myself. Red lightning was possible but with a lot of effort. Whenever I made the energy flow more like water inside me, I could manipulate lightning as if it was water. It was quite cool but also very weak at the moment. I had ideas for very cool and strong attacks but they were currently unviable because the lightning was yet too weak. Just like the very strong, potentially ultimate skill I came up with for water leyline, this one would need a lot more time and mastery to complete.


    At least I have another lightning ultimate skill… [God of Thunder], not sure if I want to rely too much on that though, I can’t use it without my tails.


    The spirits organized themselves into a community that would pay more attention to when humans approach and fight them off with their new medium spirit members. Apparently, some of them evolved into medium spirits after feeding off the energy that was left after my [God of Thunder]. Feels good that I was helpful because I blasted their home and sent some of their friends to the spirit world.


    I hung around with the spirits for 2 more weeks. I managed to learn some simple spirit magic. I only learned the skills I once saw Starbolt use though, because I remembered everything about how they worked. I learned [Spirit Spark: Electrocute] which was the damage over time that stunned whenever the damage ticked. And [Spirit Lightning Cage], again a skill that stuns when you get hit but at least the opponent can avoid this by behaving and staying in the cage. Any attempts of learning other spirit magic seemed to be quite difficult and I didn''t understand why. Now that I ‘Mastered’ Dragonvein, my ban on offensive magic was lifted. I still wanted to spend the rest of the year using it though, it’s not as if I want to use magic. I prefer Dragonvein but magic is more convenient from time to time, luckily I won''t have to rely on it now and end up getting nauseous. It has been a while since I have been nausea free like this. It feels liberating!


    The shitty city was in a mess. Their supply of electricity was cut off and it was anarchy. There seemed to be a faction that returned to using magic but they were inexperienced. I was watching from afar because I didn''t want to set foot in that place again. The people that gravitated towards using magic again seemed to form a tight community while those that didn''t were violent and didn''t group up nor tried helping others that were in the same situation. It was weird it’s as if magic brought people together. I might be misinterpreting things.


    I left the shit hole behind and wondered what I would do with my last month. 34 more days until my birthday and 36 more days before my first year is over. This sure was a busy year.