Cameron, As it turned out, had an ability that Kevin felt was the Plus sized version of his own. He could alter Gravity's direction for himself or anyone in an area, which is how he had managed to throw the morenkai with such force. He changed which direction was down for them and they fell up and then fell sideways until they flew out of his range.
Kevin heard Cameron’s story of coming to the layer and immediately looking for other people. Unlike Kevin, Cameron had found two people on day one one an older teen boy the other a young adult woman. Cameron, by far the oldest and with the most potent abilities, had taken them under his wing as they explored the first layer. They didn’t find any morenkai that first day and had found a skyscraper, explored the upper levels, selected rooms and waited.
The next day they had gone out to explore again, finding a few isolated morenkai that Cameron handled well before finding another person, an older woman who had used the bulk of her points to arm herself with guns.
The group of four had discussed what to do with Cameron insisting that they look for others in the city, but it was a large place. Eventually they ran into a pair of morenkai, and the group discovered what Kevin had learned the day before - Guns draw attention. Before long the group was surrounded and overrun with Cameron not able to handle the numbers.
Kevin didn’t want to share too much of his own experience, having killed the first person he found, and wanting to hold the secret of the golden morenkai for the time being. Instead he mentioned the Basic weapons mastery and the Ki Cultivator ability, which of the four only the teen boy had acquired. After telling the group that it had doubled his strength instantly, he saw the other three’s interest being peaked.
As the days progressed Kevin fell into a routine.
5am Wake up.
2 hour workout with vambrace, training Light Heavy.
7am Recovery Drink and low tier healing pill
Use Soul Tracker to search for family
730 Training on roof with others in group
930 Search for survivors and kill morenkai
Sometime after lunch, return, report and take a hunting group
Sometime after that, return and eat and sometimes guard duty.
Sometime after that, night hunting or guard duty.
9pm Meditation focusing on Cultivation then sleep.
Kevin finished his last set of squats, Light Heavy making the 100 lbs dumbbells feel like 300 lbs each, as he gasped for breath and let the weights go he rolled to his back and rested. He purchased a low tier healing pill, popped it into his mouth and sat up.
“Status” Kevin said.
Status: Name Kevin Moses
Points: 9,987
Race: Human
Age: 34
Stats: Strength: 39 - 40
Endurance: 27 - 28
Recovery: 17
Soul: 13
Abilities: 4/7
Soul Tracker
Ki Cultivator Mortal Tier (Early)
Basic Shield Mastery (1/5)
Basic Axe Mastery (1/5)
“I have gained at least one point of strength every day.” Kevin said, looking at the Strength Vambrace. He wore it constantly now, even during fighting. Kevin waited a little while before standing up, drinking his double portion protein shake from the shop and climbing into the showers. The water worked in every skyscraper and every room he had checked, which was lucky. He dressed, threw his backpack on and went up to the roof checking for any evidence of morankai in the stairwells before doing so.
Kevin stayed on the fifth floor from the top, the rest of the group Cameron had collected stayed on the third from the top with only Cameron and one other strong person staying on the top.
Kevin was one of the first people up on the roof, which was pretty typical. He saw Nasser walking the perimeter of the skyscraper to ensure no morankai were climbing up the side. He gave Kevin a head nod to indicate where he should start the rounds. Kevin went where Nasser had suggested - a routine for the men at this point, and checked to ensure there were no morankai present.
There, in fact, was one present. Kevin opened The Shop, went to the ‘recently purchased’ tab and selected a 50 lbs dumbbell for 25 points. He took aim, held it out over the edge and dropped it. It smashed directly into the face of the morankai, causing it to lose grip and fall the several hundred feet to the ground below.
--- Points Obtained: Points 12 ---
Nessar was from India, but as a product of coming to The Mystical Layers, all humans could understand and read all languages. It was like watching a dubbed movie. Nessar would say something in his mother tongue but Kevin heard perfect English with only a slight accent to indicate the origin.
Nessar was tall, taller than Kevin who was just a touch under six foot. His slender frame belied his strength though, as he had acquired abilities that improved his strength considerably. That, paired with his own military experience, made Nessar one of the more competent members of the group.
“My friend, why do you handle the enemy like this?”
“What do you mean?” Kevin said.
“You spend twenty points to only get ten, when you could let me or another handle the creature.” Nessar replied.
“Well, I have points, and I can get more easily enough. Besides, your abilities are loud.” Kevin said. “And, it's fun watching the weight dent their faces in before they fall.”
Nessar only shook his head as more people came up on the roof.
Before long the almost 50 people Cameron, Kevin and the others had found were on the roof.
One of their members was a martial arts black belt in some martial art Kevin couldn’t pronounce. Cameron insisted that everyone learn the basics of fighting. Since everyone there including Kevin, owed Cameron their lives, they all listened.
Next, they broke into groups for individual weapons training. Some went with Nessar, on top of his strength, he had a silent bubble ability that let him shoot the guns he had without making noise. He was a special forces soldier from India and was teaching people how to shoot. Some went with the martial artist to learn a staff or sword forms. Kevin sometimes joined that group. The last group went with Kevin to practice the bow. He wasn’t any better than any of the rest of them really, but he was generous with his points to purchase practice arrows and handled any spare morankai that found them while they trained.
Kevin practiced pushing axe energy into the head of the arrow. He found that, with a great deal of concentration, he could put axe energy into the arrow before firing it. It wasn’t as effective as adding axe energy to his, well, axe but it did make the arrow hit harder. It still wasn’t enough to one shot a morankai but once he got better with the bow, and handling axe energy, he thought it might make a big difference.
Cameron was obsessed with finding as many people as he could in the city. There were thousands of skyscrapers over miles of city. After a week of being in the cluster it was still possible that some people had hidden away, drinking the free water provided by the skyscraper. Kevin thought it might be unlikely that they find anyone else, he had found 8 bodies himself, Nessar another handful. Kevin thought their city might be empty but for the group of them, but Cameron wanted to be sure so Kevin would go and look.
Kevin could move faster than everyone else in the cluster with his Cloud Step shoes, not being constrained by following the path of the bridges, he could also handle any single morankai almost as fast as either Nessar or Cameron himself, so Kevin often went searching by himself. He would choose a skyscraper and then clear it from top to bottom.
Most people wouldn’t clear as far down as Kevin, but they didn’t know that Kevin was also looking for golden morankai. He hadn’t found any since that first day and so far Soul Tracker hadn’t let him find any. He was hoping that, with a little more interaction, he might be able to hone his ability to find them. He could use it to find morankai after all, but it would only pinpoint the nearest one. So, in a day, Kevin might search ten skyscrapers, collecting hundreds of points or use his ability to avoid morenkai all together while searching even more.
Kevin searched three full skyscrapers before taking a break. Kevin pulled out three literal cannonballs he found in The Shop. They were expensive, compared to the weights, but they were perfectly round and smooth. Kevin had got into the habit of juggling them. As soon as he could touch them, he would need to activate Light Heavy on them individually in order to toss them back and keep the juggling rhythm. A slip in activation and they would be too heavy to juggle. A few days ago Kevin broke his toe from just such an event. Kevin was getting better at juggling and better at quickly activating and switching his ability.
Kevin decided to check another skyscraper before heading back to the group. He crossed from the skyscraper to the adjacent skyscraper without using the bridge running across on his cloud stepping shoes. He used Soul Tracker to find the nearest enemy which appeared to be across the street at yet another skyscraper. This meant that likely the top 8 or nine floors of the skyscraper he was on were clear of Morankai, which of course meant that he was safe to quickly check each floor for people. He opened one of the several sheds and entered the stairwell of the skyscraper.
Going down to the top floor, the first floor from the top, he walked the halls calling out for anyone. He had his shield thrown on his back, helmet and body armor on but was unarmed. “Hello?” Kevin yelled again. “My name is Kevin, I have food and medicine and can help. Hello?” Kevin knocked loudly on a few doors just to make some extra noise.
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Kevin went down a few more levels doing the same call and knock, every once in a while sending out a Ping with Soul Tracker to find the nearest morankai. It still seemed to be across the street, only now that Kevin was in the building the angle between himself and the morankai meant he could be less certain of how far the next nearest one was.
On the 7th floor from the top, the Ping switched directions and pointed straight down. A morankai was in the stairwell, and if Kevin’s pings were any indication, it was climbing the stairs somewhat fast for the usually slow creatures. Kevin seemed unperturbed as he continued calling out and knocking on the 7th floor from the top, but he did increase his Soul Tracker pings to keep an eye out for the creature. He crossed the building and selected the opposite stairwell to go down to the 8th floor from the top. When he opened the stairway door a slight smell met him, giving him a hint at what was waiting. This time he was quieter as he walked around. He knocked softly on doors and checked more rooms at random.
One door he checked sounded different than the ones before. Sometimes that would happen if the room opened to a lounge closet. In this case, the door was stuck shut. Kevin took a deep, calming breath. He knocked on the door, hard, then sent out another ping. The morankai was on the floor below him. No one answered the door. Kevin knocked again. Again no answer. He tried to force the door but it was stuck shut.
Kevin got down on his hands and knees and peaked under the door. The seal was tight but sometimes you could see the door stop and move it out of the way. This time was no exception. Kevin pulled one of his daggers out from his ring as well as his maul. He put the dagger point under the door about where the door stop was and hit the pummel of the dagger with his maul gently. The door stop moved out of the way allowing the door to swing open.
The door opened on a corpse. There were no flies in the first layer, nor bugs of any kind. Even so, the smell coming off the corpse was not pleasant. If Kevin had to guess, it looked like the person had taken a hit from a morankai, somehow managed to escape, maybe even kill it before coming back to her room and succumbing to the wounds. That was the problem with the first layer. You left The Shop with no points, you had to kill on day 1 just to get food. The cheapest healing pill was 80 points, which meant at least 7 beasts for you to have even one chance at a healing pill if you didn’t pick some up before entering the layer.
Kevin shook his head. This was someone who could have been saved easily if they had found a person before finding a monster. The city was vast though. Total it seemed that as few as 75 but probably not more than 100 people showed up in this city. Kevin checked the body. “I’m sorry.” Kevin said to the 4th body he’d personally found, a staggering amount considering the size of the city. The person had only one thing on them worth nothing at all. A 9mm glock handgun which cost less than 1000 points in The Shop. They probably spent everything else on some ability that didn’t help them enough.
Kevin heard the door to the floor slam open. A morankai was here. Maybe it was the morankai that had killed this girl, maybe it wasn’t. It didn’t matter to Kevin. He tapped his ring and pulled out the 100 lbs dumbbell as well as his obsidian axe. He activated Light Heavy and tossed the dumb bell across the hall into the lounge windows. It crashed against them making a loud echoing sound but didn’t break the glass. The weight dropped and made a second echoing boom.
In moments the morankai was at the weight curiously inspecting it. It didn’t have a chance to react before Kevin swung his axe down on its spine like a woodsman splitting lumber.
--- Points Obtained: Points 14 ---
After building a funeral pyre in the bathroom with cloth, oil and wood purchased from the shop and laying the body to rest in the bathtub of the room she died in, Kevin burnt the body. He closed the bathroom door, then using the door stop and a string, locked the room. He placed a towel over the bottom of the door and another over the handle to give the body a place to rest.
Kevin had never found two people in one skyscraper before, but decided to check the skyscraper for Golden Morankai before moving on back to the group. He got down to the 20th floor and found a lounge and balcony much as he had on the skyscraper on his first day. Across from his 20th floor balcony was a 22 floor balcony. Kevin decided he would check the rest of the building, down to the lobby before coming back to this balcony, using the cloud step shoes to cross the street and then starting his search in that building there before heading back to the group.
The rest of his building was relatively empty besides a few morankai he managed. After a while Kevin found himself back at the balcony ready to run across. He had done this several times, but he’d never tried running up before. He lightened himself to make it easier and started running. Immediately he realized he was not going to make it. Kevin thought as the realization struck him. He could probably turn with the shoes and just corkscrew higher but he was lazy and didn’t want to bother with that. He tapped his ring while he ran and drew out the 30’ chain and the 100 lbs dumbbell. He activated Light Heavy, wrapped the dumbbell with the chain and tossed the long chain at the balcony. He held onto the chain while scrambling to grab the outside wall. There was a hard jerk as his chain went taught and arrested Kevin’s lightened momentum. Kevin quickly climbed the chain and stored his makeshift ‘grappling hook’.
He entered the new skyscraper with the intent to move down and clear it before rapidly clearing up. He went to the nearest stairwell, cracked the door and looked down. Nothing out of the ordinary so far. Using Soul Tracker he could tell there was a morankai above him pretty near but since he wasn’t going up right now he was just going to have to be cautious. He decided to basically start at the bottom, though he wouldn’t go all the way to the ground floor. Based on how many morankai you could see walking the sidewalks and streets, only fools would go there. Still, he went to the second floor and cracked the door. He broke into a smile. The second floor was dark.
Kevin checked the second floor and stopped smiling. Maybe he was wrong about what the lights being out meant, because there was nothing here. He shrugged and went to the third level. He opened the door from the stairs and started walking around the level. Most of the levels in the skyscrapers were full of office spaces or hotel style rooms or both. This floor had rooms or suits surrounding the outside with a huge open cubicle floor in the middle. If it weren’t for the golden morankai in the center of the cubicle farm, Kevin wouldn’t have been able to see at all.
Kevin broke into a smile again. Kevin needed a plan, because this time he wanted to spend some time with the golden Morankai, and hopefully give his Soul Tracker ability some time to be able to track the next one. Just as with the first golden morankai, this one had two escorts. One looked pretty typical, a ping from Soul Tracker revealed that it was a normal morankai. The other was diminutive compared to even the golden morankai, but it also had a glow about it that made Kevin a little worried.
Kevin figured the golden morankai would try and run, just as the first had, but he had a plan. He went into several rooms on the floor and pulled the door stops. Then, Kevin went back down to the second level, climbed each of the other three flights of stairs up to the third level and jammed two door stops into the door. In front of two of the door stops he also put a 100 lbs dumbbell and in one he put a 50 lbs kettlebell. It might not help a lot but he really just needed to slow the creature down.
Kevin climbed the fourth flight of stairs again. He pulled out his bow and one of his best arrows, planning to hit the normal morankai hard and hopefully somewhat quietly. He got as close to the three morankai as he dared without alerting them. He knocked an arrow, stood up, drew and focused on putting as much basic axe energy as possible into the arrow head. He used Light Heavy to make the arrow marginally lighter to increase the speed the arrow would be thrown by the bow, released a breath and fired.
Before the arrow had even finished its flight Kevin was tapping his ring and pulling out his chain and another 100 lbs dumbbell. He stood and noticed the normal morankai was down with an arrow in its back, but not dead, the abnormal morankai was searching for the enemy, and the golden morankai was running for the stairwell opposite of where Kevin had come in. He crouched down and gave chase as quietly as he could.
He heard a sheik from the abnormal morankai, an oddity as normally the creatures made no sound at all. An energy beam Kevin was not at all interested in experiencing blasted by where he had been, but he was already gone, closing in on the golden morankai. It reached the door and tried to push it open but failed instead running hard into the door-made-wall. It bounced off having not braced its strength against it. Kevin approached it, and heard a shriek form the abnormal morankai again, this time feeling the *woosh* of the blast as it passed over his shoulder.
The golden morankai stood and tried the door again, pushing against it, but it wouldn’t open. Kevin saw it bracing its feet ready to push with all it had, but it wouldn’t have the time. Before it could try again Kevin was on it. He ran into it 100 lbs weight Light Heavy to feel like 300 lbs. The creature cracked into the door, Kevin reversed the Light Heavy making it light again and wrapping the chain around the golden creature, pinning its arms to its side.
Another shriek and Kevin ducked out of the way, throwing the golden morankai face first into the ground, the weight on its back. Kevin stood on the edge of the chain just as he had with the first one, only this time he was better at his ability. He could affect the weight and the chain.
He tapped his ring and pulled out his shield just as another shriek came from the glowing abnormal. He braced himself and angled his shield slightly away from himself. The beam of energy struck his shield and Kevin felt the impact reverberate through his shoulder. Then he noticed the normal morankai lumbering towards him. The abnormal was getting closer between each shriek too.
Kevin felt the chain slip under his foot, he took a moment to hit the prone creature with his shield before tapping his ring and pulling out his desert eagle. He raised it and fired on the abnormal morankai just as it opened its mouth to shriek and release its energy beam. The bullets punched into the center mass of the creature knocking it back and out of sight from Kevin. He turned, put three rounds into the normal who was still approaching. It too was knocked back. The shrieker got back up and Kevin emptied the magazine into the abnormal. It fell again and
Kevin took the opportunity to store the gun, hit the golden morankai again and tapped his ring to pull out a low tier healing pill and swallow it down.
He felt the tendons start knitting back together as the two non-golden morankai got back to their feet. The shrieker prepared to fire again and inspiration found Kevin. He braced for the beam, angling his shield and directing the blast directly into the normal morankai. Kevin’s shoulder dislocated and he dropped the shield, but the normal morankai was blasted back, smoking from the waist up.
--- Points Obtained: Points 14 ---
The low tier healing pill was still in his system, Kevin ducked down, kicking the golden morankai in the head, laid on his back and pulled his dislocated arm above his head. He bent it at the elbow and used his free hand to pull it lower like he was trying to itch between his shoulder blade, then he moved his dislocated arm trying to touch the opposite shoulder. With the healing pill still in him, this was enough to pop his shoulder back into place. Relief flooded Kevin. He tapped his ring pulling out the desert eagle and switching out the magazine. He grabbed his shield and kicked the golden morankai in the head one more time.
Kevin stood up. The abnormal was closer. Kevin shot the golden morankai in the lower back three times, turned and fired on the abnormal before it had a chance to shriek again. He measured each shot, stepping towards it and firing to keep it off balance and from shrieking. He stored the desert eagle and pulled out the maul. The creature recovered and shrieked, firing at Kevin again, but he was too close. Kevin ducked under the beam of energy and brought his maul, hammer side down, on the morankai’s foot. He crushed it like a pancake. The morankai staggered. Kevin brought his shield up and body checked it, tripling the weight of the shield as he struck the creature. The morankia continued to stumble back on its bad food. Kevin swung his maul and put the axe head into the creature’s shoulder beside its neck. It shrieked again but in pain alone. It swiped at Kevin, but he blocked it, dropping down he struck the creature’s broken foot with his shield. The creature tried to pull its foot away but Kevin reached out with his maul and hooked it's ankle. Kevin pulled and the creature stumbled forward, crashing into Kevin’s shield. He threw the morankai back and it fell to its back. In the same motion, Kevin dropped his shield, brought the maul over his head and broke through the abnormal morankai’s chest.
--- Points Obtained: Points 140 —
Kevin grabbed his shield, storing it and walked back over to the golden morankai. It lay pitifully on the ground. Kevin guessed he may have broken its back with the combination of the Light Heavy dumbbell and the point blank .50 caliber bullets. Kevin kicked the creature in the head again to lessen its struggles to escape.
He sent out a ping from Soul Tracker looking specifically for golden morankai. Before, he didn’t understand the creatures well enough to search for them. Normal morankai were all pretty much identical so his ability could track the nearest one. The abnormal morankai were different, they couldn’t be tracked because they were too unique. It was Kevin’s hope that the golden morankai would be like the normals - similar enough that he could track the nearest ones. The ping came back with nothing.
The first time he had pinged a morankai, it had failed because he didn’t have a clear enough image or understanding of them. Kevin looked at the golden morankai. He noticed the bulbous, distended head, the coloration and glow. He noticed the general body dimensions and characteristics as they were similar and unique compared to normal morankai. Kevin sent out a ping from Soul Tracker. Kevin got a response.
The nearest golden morankai was right next to him. Kevin smiled, and brought his maul down.
--- Points Obtained: Points 12,405 —
Status: Name Kevin Moses
Points: 22,158
Race: Human
Age: 34
Stats: Strength: 39 - 40
Endurance: 27 - 28
Recovery: 17
Soul: 13
Abilities: 4/7
Soul Tracker
Ki Cultivator Mortal Tier (Early)
Basic Shield Mastery (1/5) - (2/5)
Basic Axe Mastery (1/5) - (2/5)