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n

nWhat had the hedgehog spat out?

nSomething brown hit the ground. It almost looked like a regular piece of earth.

nHowever, the brown piece of earth quickly dissolved into mist, which gathered in the air above it.

nIn the end, some brown mist had formed in the shape of a spear, and several clumps of earth materialized in the air and fell to the ground.

nAlex almost couldn’t believe it.

nIt was another ethereal spire!

nHowever, it also seemed logical to Alex.

nIf the octopus could create an ethereal spire, why couldn’t the hedgehog?

nFrom what he had seen, the octopus’ ethereal spire had something to do with the Ice Element, and the hedgehog’s ethereal spire was obviously of the Earth Element.

nCould Alex have two ethereal spires in his body?

nAlex walked over to the ethereal spire, which was slowly being burrowed by the earth forming around it.

n‘I should first try my right arm,’ Alex thought. ‘I don’t know if the two spires will cancel each other out or something.’

n‘I just hope I won’t explode or something.’

nAlex put his sword to the side and touched the brown ethereal spire with his right hand.

nThe spire wrapped itself around Alex’s right arm and vanished into Alex’s body.

nAlex felt how the ethereal spire moved throughout his body.

nFirst, it traveled through his right arm to his head.

nHowever, just like with the previous one, this ethereal spire seemingly couldn’t reach Alex’s mind. It was like something was blocking its way.

nAfter that, the ethereal spire went to Alex’s left arm, and Alex became nervous.

nHow would the spires interact?

nAlex felt how the brown ethereal spire entered his left arm and then…

nNothing happened.

nAfter a bit, it exited Alex’s left arm and went to his legs.

nThen, it inspected Alex’s torso.

nLastly, the ethereal spire went back to Alex’s head.

n“Huuurgh!”

nAlex felt like he had barfed, and the ethereal spire left Alex’s body through his mouth.

nThen, it landed in front of him and simply stayed there.

nAlex blinked a couple of times as he looked at the brown ethereal spire.

n‘Well, seems like I can’t use that. Does it have something to do with the strange Affinity the God was telling me about?’ Alex thought.

nThen, Alex looked at his left arm.

n‘Do I have an Ice Affinity?’ Alex thought. ‘Honestly, I’m not so sure. The God told me that my Affinity would be very special, and, honestly, if I had an Ice Affinity, my left arm probably wouldn’t heat up if I used that spire. I can’t imagine every Ice Mage burning to a crisp as soon as they use a spell.’

nAlex scratched the back of his head.

n‘I mean, my Affinity obviously has something to do with Ice, but it probably isn’t pure Ice. At the same time, it probably has nothing to do with Earth. Wonder what it is,’ Alex thought.

nAlex looked at the hedgehog with a complicated expression.

n“Hey, I can’t use that!” Alex shouted.

nThe hedgehog looked at Alex again.

nAlex took two steps away from the brown ethereal spire.

nSlurp!

nWithout waiting for a second, the hedgehog slurped up the ethereal spire.

nObviously, it hadn’t been comfortable with handing something like that over.

nThat was probably also why it had thought over its decision for so long earlier.

nThen, the hedgehog walked away from the octopus and began violently shaking.

nPlonk! Plonk! Plonk!

nAn avalanche of fruit fell off the hedgehog’s needles.

nIts needles became completely empty of fruit!

nThere were hundreds!

nAlex’s eyes widened.

nHe knew how powerful these fruits were!

nAll these fruits couldn’t even compare to a single tentacle of the octopus or one of the ethereal spires?!

nEven more, the hedgehog seemed rather happy with that trade.

nIt had appeared neutral when it gave Alex the tentacle.

nWhen it gave Alex the ethereal spire, it had definitely been unwilling.

nBut when it had given Alex the fruit, it seemingly hadn’t minded a single bit.

nThis meant:

nHundreds of fruits < tentacle < ethereal spire.

n‘Huh, apparently, I made quite a steal by absorbing that ice spire,’ Alex thought.

n‘However, how do I even transport all of these fruits?’ Alex thought as he scratched his chin.

nThere were several mountains of fruits, all about a meter tall.

nAlex sighed.

n‘Obviously, I can’t transport all of them. Well, let’s forget about returning home. I can just train here,’ Alex thought.

nAlex looked at the blizzard storming around him.

n‘Also, with that new ability, I can keep myself warm. As my blood travels through my left arm, the temperature of my arm will be distributed along my body. As long as it’s not too cold, that’s enough to heat my entire body. It’s essentially not any different from what my body is naturally doing anyway.’

nCrunch!

nAlex looked at one of the mountains and saw a familiar creature.

n“Of course you return as soon as you’re no longer in danger,” Alex said with a sarcastic tone while looking at the lizard.

nThe lizard had returned and had eaten one of the fruits.

n“Well, you helped me in dealing with the bear, so you can get some of the fruits,” Alex said.

nThe lizard mostly ignored Alex. After eating the fruit, it went over to a tree, climbed it, and laid down.

nAlex also went over and ate one of the fruits.

nBy now, Alex needed two fruits for one “attempted suicide” of training.

nHowever, for now, Alex only ate one.

nWhy?

nSSSSSSS!

nAlex looked at his left arm as it released sizzling sounds.

nThis was the sound of Alex’s arm healing with rapid speeds.

nFor once, Alex felt quite lucky.

nIf he hadn’t grabbed the ethereal spire, and if he hadn’t used it, his arm would have probably shattered and fallen off at some point.

nAlex didn’t want to find out if he could regrow entire limbs.

nProbably not.

nHowever, since his left arm was still attached and not frozen, it could receive the nutrients and Mana from the fruit and heal.

nAfter a bit, Alex moved his left arm around with practiced ease.

nFinally, he could move his arm again!

nAlex looked at the other fruits for a while and then at the hedgehog, which was still munching away on the octopus. Its stomach seemed endless.

n‘I probably don’t have to be very careful around here. I’m pretty sure that no beast would dare to come close to the hedgehog’s food. The lizard is only here because it had met the hedgehog several times when we exchanged stuff.’

nAlex looked back at the fruits.

n‘Well, it’s time for a lot of pain!’

nAlex ate two fruits, climbed a tree, and jumped off with all of his power.

nAlex flew high into the air, did several flips, and perfectly hit the icy ground with the front of his body.

nAlex knew that, at some point, trees wouldn’t be high enough anymore.

nWhen that happened, Alex would need to find an alternate method of training his entire body.

nWhen the hedgehog heard the loud impact of Alex falling to the ground, it turned to Alex and looked at him with confusion.

nWhat was that human doing?

nAlex convulsed on the ground in unending pain, and the hedgehog only stared at him in confusion.

nAfter a while, Alex stood up, ate some more fruits, and repeated the process.

nAfter watching Alex for a couple of repetitions, the hedgehog went back to eating the octopus.

nThat human was weird.

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