The Power of Lightning

Maybe I should save up to get a storage item.

Ogre carried a small pouch on his back and held a bag of fish in one hand, always feeling a bit constrained.

He had quite a few things on him, which were inconvenient to carry around. Normally, he could only fit a small hammer in his pouch for self-defense—though it was a weapon specially customized by Ogre.

“Hey, stop right there!”

A shout came from behind Ogre.

“Yeah, you.”

Looking toward the source of the voice, he saw two thugs dressed like local ruffians. The only notable detail was the blue Seven-Pointed Star logo of a local gang on their sleeves.

‘Are they muggers?’

Ogre was not surprised by this kind of thing, but he hadn't expected to attract trouble just because he had barely taken off his mask.

Did his build make him look like an easy target?

“W-what do you want? This isn't the slums...” Ogre put on a tentative disguise—he wanted to find out.

What kind of fools would try to mug someone on the border between the inner city and the slums.

“So what? Hand over the fish in your hand, and your bag too! Or else don't blame us for being rough.”

While Ogre was speaking, the two had already surrounded him. Looking at their practiced posture, it didn't seem like their first mugging.

This spot was indeed quite a distance from the inner city, and it had the cover of narrow alleys. The location was chosen cleverly, allowing a quick advance or retreat.

But they didn't stop to think why Ogre dared to walk this path.

“This kid has such fair, tender skin. It wouldn't be bad to keep him around to play with...” The other fatter thug stared at Ogre and licked his lips vulgarly.

“Nuisances...”

Ogre's tone grew cold. He understood the situation now; these two were simply old scumbags accustomed to bullying the weak.

“What did you—” Before the thug could finish his sentence, a swift hand chop struck his throat.

The chop was immensely powerful, crushing his trachea and snapping his neck.

Then, as the corpse collapsed, Ogre casually snatched the short blade from the thug's hand.

With a backhand flick, the other fat thug ended up with a blade right in the center of his forehead—it was his companion's knife.

In just a split second, the two mugging thugs became silent corpses.

A throat strike, a disarm, and a knife throw. Three moves, two dead—incredibly clean.

Throughout the entire process, Ogre didn't even look back. He steadily carried his fish and left the dark alley, as casually as if he had just kicked aside a stone blocking his path.

It wouldn't take long for scavengers and wild dogs to strip these two clean of everything they had.

Nothing would be left.

As for people like these who enjoyed bullying the weak and preying on the innocent, Ogre wouldn't bat an eye even if he killed ten thousand of them.

This was the kind of person he hated most—regardless of race.

...

“Little Ogre, you're back early today. Is that fish you bought from the market?” A passing Church of Dawn missionary greeted him as usual upon seeing him.

Because Ogre had a good relationship with Yade and was usually simple, honest, and well-behaved, the people of the Church of Dawn generally liked this hardworking little guy.

“I got paid, so I bought some fish to nourish my body,” Ogre gave the missionary a gentle smile.

The minor incident on the road hadn't affected his mood at all.

The wind along the way had long since blown away any unusual scent from him. No one would ever suspect that the honest-looking Ogre had just killed two people.

“You should indeed eat better.” Hearing this, the missionary smiled back. Because they were quite a distance apart, he didn't notice anything amiss.

After greeting each other, Ogre carried the fish back to his room—this was the lodging Teacher Yade had found for him.

The previous owner of this house was a follower of Dawn who had died in the city streets for unknown reasons. Since he had no wife or children, the house was classified as property of the Church of Dawn and allocated to Yade.

Ogre was merely residing here temporarily.

Before moving into the city, Ogre had mostly lived on the outer ring of the Forest of Monsters.

Compared to his residence in the Forest of Monsters, the house in the city was indeed far more comfortable. Most importantly, Ogre no longer had to worry every day.

After closing the door, Ogre took off his backpack and some personal items (human-skin mask, hidden blade, etc.).

Then, Ogre placed the dead Electric Eel onto a plate, took out clean knives, casually sliced it up, and began eating the raw ‘sashimi.’

Honestly, the taste was actually decent. Perhaps roasting it would have yielded a better flavor.

But Ogre didn't have any charcoal left at home.

To settle his stomach as quickly as possible, he processed it simply. In any case, an ogre's stomach could digest even metal.

While Ogre's stomach was certainly inferior to a purebred ogre's, eating raw food was still quite easy for him. Back in the Forest of Monsters, it had been very inconvenient to start a fire.

Before his father learned the art of making charcoal, Ogre had eaten raw food quite a few times, even though his diet mostly consisted of fruit milk.

With most of the fish meat down his stomach, Ogre sat down by the edge of the bed and placed his newly obtained meditation method to the side.

Ogre then closed his eyes.

Innate talent—Ogre's Lunchbox, activate!

A faint white steam began to seep through Ogre's skin, rising from his clothes.

Soon, Ogre's skin turned flushed and red.

This time, his body's reaction was even greater than Ogre had anticipated.

The good news was that it was working.

The bad news was that the onset was too violent.

The agonizing restructuring distorted the face of Ogre, who was otherwise well-accustomed to training injuries.

‘Water, I need to cool down!’ This was Ogre's sole thought at the moment.

Enduring the intense pain of his rapidly shifting muscles, Ogre pushed open the door to a small alcove—the wooden tub there was large enough to fit a person.

This was Ogre's household water barrel.

The place usually used to store household water now became Ogre's only destination.

Sloshing, overflowing water wet the floor.

As Ogre submerged his entire body into the water, the white steam rising from his body stopped appearing.

Only when the pain subsided slightly did Ogre regain a fraction of his cognitive ability.

‘Why is the reaction so violent!’ This was Ogre's first thought.

This drastic change was something Ogre had not anticipated. Although his previous two ‘feedings’ had also caused pain, they were absolutely nothing compared to this.

He felt as if the muscles all over his body were being torn apart and chewed to pieces.

‘Fortunately, this feeding is happening at home...’

This was Ogre's second thought.

This level of pain was enough to turn him into a lamb to be slaughtered. Its impact was even greater than when he had acquired high-speed dynamic vision for the second time—

with Ogre's five senses, even if he lost his sight, he wouldn't be a helpless weakling. His sense of smell and hearing were far superior to ordinary people.

He had only spent half a month keeping his eyes open to adapt to his new vision, which had caused him to trip and fall occasionally.

But if necessary, he could have just closed his eyes.

But this change was different. With this kind of pain, let alone fighting, the fact that Ogre could even walk that short distance was already an extraordinary achievement born from his usual training.

If the cold water hadn't helped soothe him, Ogre probably would have passed out from the pain by now.

‘Meditation... Meditation should help reduce the pain.’

With this thought, Ogre calmed his mind again, poked his head out of the water, and began basic meditation.

If anyone were beside Ogre right now, they would notice a faint blue glow pulsing beneath his skin.

...

A long while later, a sleek, fair foot stepped out of the wooden tub. The owner of this foot was none other than Ogre, who had just finished his ‘feeding.’

“So hungry... I need to find food...”

Ogre's condition had never been this poor, but fortunately, this change had come violently and departed just as quickly.

Rummaging through his drawers, he pulled out his stash of honey cubes. Throwing caution to the wind, Ogre immediately began devouring them—a wild wolf starving for seven or eight days probably couldn't eat faster than him right now.

“Ah... I'm alive again.” After eating his fill, Ogre exhaled a long, satisfied breath of warm air.

Sugar was always the fastest food for ordinary people to recover their energy.

“It seems that in the future, it's best to find a safer place for my feedings.”

Feeling the cloying sweetness lingering in his mouth, Ogre estimated that he wouldn't want to eat sugar again anytime soon.

Regardless, it was good to be alive.

Once Ogre gathered his senses, he didn't immediately try out his new ability. Instead, he inspected his body first.

“It seems I've gotten even fairer.”

Ogre turned his hands over to inspect them. The changes to his skin were the most obvious; it hadn't just become pale and fair, but its smoothness had also drastically improved.

It could easily be described as having skin like jade and bones like ice.

Under his heightened vision, Ogre could see that the pores on his skin had shrunk considerably.

This was an unexpected side effect of the altered muscle structure.

As the muscles tightened, the pores naturally became smaller.

However, this was actually a bit of a downgrade—since one of humanity's most outstanding features was its full-body perspiration system, the alteration to Ogre's physical structure effectively weakened his heat dissipation.

“My physical muscles seem to have been restructured... and my vision appears to have improved slightly along with it.”

This was the most direct change Ogre felt. He tried throwing a punch.

Well, the strength was noticeably weaker.

“So after all that pain, my physical constitution actually got weaker?”

Ogre picked up a dry cloth and slowly walked over to the metal mirror while drying his hair.

His violent movements during the intense pain had torn his clothes to shreds, so he simply ripped them off and tossed them aside.

By the time he stood in front of the mirror, Ogre's upper body was completely bare.

“My muscles have shrunk by two sizes. No wonder my strength feels a bit lower,” Ogre muttered to himself, looking at the androgynous ‘girl’ in the mirror.

Ogre had already possessed very feminine facial features, but after this feeding, he seemed to have become even prettier.

It made sense; with tight skin, a person naturally became beautiful.

Ignoring the flat chest, anyone would probably mistake the current Ogre for a girl—this beautiful face could easily silence those nobles fighting over the title of the border's number one beauty.

Originally, only Ogre's face looked prettier than a girl's, giving him a feminine appearance, but his well-trained body was solid and strong.

While it couldn't compare to those whose arms were thicker than thighs, he was definitely well-built. No one would ever suspect such a physique belonged to a female.

But this feeding had caused Ogre's body to shrink quite a bit.

If he put on clothes, he could easily blend perfectly into a crowd of girls.

“The loss isn't too severe. If I train it back, my maximum strength should be able to increase quite a bit more.”

Ogre clenched his fist and evaluated his transformation.

To Ogre, merely becoming good-looking was meaningless. Becoming stronger was his only pursuit.

“Let's test the ability first.”

Ogre could feel that there was another way to exert force within his muscles, brought about by the structural changes.

If nothing went wrong, this method of exertion was likely the key to generating lightning.

Ogre was a man of action. He did whatever he thought of, and quickly began his test.

Ogre controlled the muscle groups in his palm and forearm to begin exerting force.

As a spark of lightning danced across his fingertips, the corners of Ogre's mouth began to curve upward—

he knew he had succeeded. He truly possessed the power of lightning!

“Let's test the limit.”

Along with the excitement of his successful experiment, Ogre suddenly controlled his entire body to exert force—he wanted to see just how strong his lightning could be!

Crackling lightning cut through the air, releasing a dazzling light and instantly paralyzing Ogre, sending him crashing to the floor.

“Are you kidding me... Can the electricity from my own body shock me first?”

After a long recovery, Ogre finally stood up. He realized that he wasn't actually immune to electricity...

Roughly seventy percent of the muscles in Ogre's body could discharge electricity through this special exertion. Just now, he had truly gone all out.

“A Lightning Bolt couldn't even harm me, yet I almost knocked myself out with my own electricity.”

Stretching his body, a wave of lingering fear rose in Ogre's heart. He realized that his previous ability to tolerate electric currents was entirely due to the magic-resistant constitution of his ogre heritage.

If it weren't for the energy resistance of his ogre constitution, he might have actually become the first person to electrocute themselves to death.

This reminded Ogre of the scene when the Electric Eel was pulled out. The Electric Eel itself wasn't very resistant to electricity in the air.

So it wasn't the fish's fault...

How careless. There were actually things that weren't recorded in books.

Of course, it might also be because it wasn't worth recording.

“But if even I can't withstand this electricity, others shouldn't be able to either.”

Ogre figured that in close-quarters combat, a full-power discharge could probably knock out any Professional whose physical body wasn't exceptionally abnormal.

But that was only in close combat.

Usually, an average Professional could absolutely kill him before he even got close.

Some wealthy Knights would even be equipped with highly magic-resistant armor.

This meant that electrical attacks might not be so effective.

But who said Ogre had to fight Professionals? He could also fight monsters.

As long as he controlled the intensity of the current to harm others without hurting himself, it would be a decent defensive skill. As for offense, Ogre still needed to develop it further.

“First, I need to test where my limit lies.”

With this thought, Ogre began his first attempt.

He began to slowly increase the exertion, making sure to find the maximum limit his body could endure.

Soon, Ogre found the sweet spot.

Discharging from only half of his body had no major effect on him. Exceeding this limit would begin to impact his body; the more parts discharging, the greater the impact.

“Fortunately, it's not a useless ability.”

Ogre breathed a sigh of relief and then tried to develop this ability—this was his very first non-physical skill, after all.

“Lightning Bolt!”

Ogre tried to swing his hand and ‘throw’ the current.

It worked, but it was practically useless because the distance it was thrown was pitifully short.

“Without guided energy, it really isn't that simple to cast a mage's spell... What I lack is likely some sort of medium or guidance.”

This attempt was a failure. Frankly speaking, considering this attack range, it was less effective than simply skewering someone with a great spear.

It seemed that possessing the power of lightning was, once again, somewhat useless...

“No, there must be a use for this that I've overlooked...”

The thing Ogre lacked least was experimentation and critical thinking.

Soon, he recalled the information about the Electric Eel.

“How does the Electric Eel avoid shocking itself... Ah, water... Water! I need a medium!”

Thinking of this, Ogre's eyes lit up instantly.

He quickly took a basin and scooped some water from the wooden tub he had just ‘bathed’ in.

Then, Ogre submerged his hand in the water.

Discharge!

Sparking electric currents spread from his submerged palm. Visually, the attack range had indeed increased significantly.

“Let's see if my tolerance improves when I increase the current.” Ogre then began to turn up the power. Perhaps because the water helped distribute the load, he still felt no discomfort even when the exertion exceeded half of his body.

But immediately after, Ogre noticed some bubbles suddenly forming in the water.

“Bubbles? Why are there bubbles?”

Just as Ogre was observing the source of these bubbles, a flame suddenly burst into life where the water's surface met his bare arm.

The flames flickered, and a blue glow lit up beneath Ogre's fair skin—the reaction of his ogre skin resistance being triggered.

Relying on the resistance bonus of his ogre skin, this minor fire explosion did not cause any serious harm to Ogre.

It merely gave him a painful singe.

“Where did this fire come from?!” Compared to the burning of the flames, Ogre was much more concerned with—where the hell did this fire originate?