New World Day 29

  Two days. That’s how long I had to wait for my body to overcome the disease that the System called Lightning Blight. What time I didn’t spend exploring the System, I spent thinking about what I would need to do to get home. My foray into the Haunted Spiderway showed me how naive I had been to think that my mana vision would let me spot an ambush.

  The forest coyotes, goblins, and I all leaked mana when viewed through my mana vision. It came out of our bodies like tendrils of fire rising into the air. The ambush predators all had a way to keep their mana from leaking out of their body. That was the ability that allowed the various creatures to hide from and ambush me, and that was what I wanted to learn. If I could learn that skill then I could keep the fighting to a minimum. Beyond learning that skill, I needed to learn some attacking skills and a more active defensive skill. Until I achieved all of these goals, I wasn’t going anywhere.

  I started out my first day disease free by purchasing the Alarm Runes skill. The skill gave me more confidence in the safety of my home and in protecting any camp sites I may create in the future. The last two title points were going to be held in reserve. The purchase of the skill was accompanied by the usual fanfare, and I did get confirmation on one question much earlier than I had expected. The other two rune skills that I was interested in were now cheaper to purchase. It was only by a few points, but every little bit helped.

  I didn’t go and practice the runes right away though. I drank some water to rehydrate myself and ventured out to the cow ponds to replenish my supplies. I used the last six rifle rounds to acquire six geyser crayfish for lunch and dinner and filled up a number of water bottles. I worried that the crayfish would be exterminated due to my hunting, but there seemed to be more of them than ever. It made me curious about the speed of their reproductive cycle, but I filed that question away for another time when I had more leisure to explore such topics. I returned to the house, stored the crayfish tails in the refrigerator, put the mana stones on the workbench, and strained the water right away.

  I left the basement after I finished with those chores and walked the perimeter of the front field and around the edge of the forest. I wanted to keep track of the various creatures that came and went around my home. I looked for the any markings that I didn’t recognize and kept an eye out for signs of the more dangerous beasts that I had encountered so far. I gave the big barn a wide berth for that very reason. The smooth S shaped patterns of flattened mud entered and exited the big barn from multiple places. The python was still around. That was for sure.

  My investigation led me past the big barn to the top of what we used to call the orchard hill. There used to be some fruit trees on the hill hence the name, but over time those trees were shifted to the front field. By the time the New World came about, the hill was filled with warm season grasses and flowers. After the New World, it was five times the size and the blue claw grass from the dam of the Little Lake rose so high on this hill that I couldn’t see a single trace of the Big Lake that I knew lay at the bottom of the hill. What worried me is that I saw prints in the ground that I didn’t recognize.

  From the spacing of the prints, I could tell that it was a creature that walked on two legs. The feet had two toes that ended in large claws that dug an inch into the ground. There was what looked like the third stub of a toe on the inside of each foot, but there was no claw mark to accompany it. I had no idea what type of creature would leave such an odd footprint. I breathed in deeply through my nose to see if there was a unique scent accompanying the footprints, but the only scent I picked up was the pleasant smell of flowers. No help there. I decided to give the grasses of the orchard hill that same protective distance that I gave the big barn until I figured out what creature left those footprints. Those claws meant that whatever it was it had the potential to be dangerous.

  I returned to the house at this point and did some work inside. I boarded up all of the broken windows with the boards from the deck that I had set aside and covered up cuts in the roof with some shingles I found in the basement. As I worked on these simple tasks, I activated the Quick Thinking skill whenever I could, and I experimented with my Mana Vision and Mana Enhancement skills. I continued altering the curve and thickness of the lens of my Mana Vision, and I started to work on trying to strengthen the enhancement of specific body parts. After the fiasco with my eyes, I knew to start with a small extra enhancement. When I finished with the boards and the shingles, I headed down to the basement and cooked up three crayfish tails for lunch.

  Now that I was full, I picked up my rune axe and climbed up to the roof. I practiced my footwork and axe skills on the uneven ground of the roof with the mountains looming in the distance until the sky darkened and my stomach growled like an angry beast. I knew there was a limit to how far my skills could grow without someone to practice with, but I would do all I could. My Axe Mastery was affected by that limit more than any other skill. Parrying and blocking was critical to fights with close combat weapons, and I couldn’t practice them without an opponent. I was confident that the reason my Axe Mastery evolved after the fight with the hobgoblin was because I was parrying and blocking for the first time. All I could do was put in all the time and effort I could spare.

  Listening to my stomach, I climbed back through and closed the windows to the roof before I returned to the basement to cook dinner. I burped in satisfaction after eating the last three crayfish tails and sat in my normal spot. It was time to work on my basic mana skills. I had two ideas about how to stop leaking mana from my body. One was altering the image I used when activating my two enhancement skills. I attempted to include an emphasis on containing the mana within my body, but adding a third element to the image proved difficult. Every time I tried, the image collapsed and my enhancement and vision skills stopped working. I succeeded once when I used the Quick Thinking skill at the same time, but it wouldn’t be much use if I could only hold the image for three seconds every hour and a half. No, I had to keep practicing until I could do it without using the Quick Thinking skill as a crutch.

  The second idea involved a project that I had started all the way back when I first started practicing mana. It was time to attempt to create a spiritual body. I began my attempt at my toes as they were the body part I was most willing to live without in case something went wrong. I focused on an image identical to my personal silhouette and extended mana out from the mana veins to create an outline of my toes.

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  My body trembled and was soon covered in sweat, and my head felt like I had been slamming it against a wall. My mana lake was empty by the time I finished outlining my little toe. The most frustrating thing was that the toe collapsed and disappeared within minutes of me stopping to take a break. The temptation to use mana water to fuel a complete outline was there, but that would wait until I was sure my body and mind could persevere through the entire process. I needed more strength both physical and mental before that would be possible which meant more training. I waited until my mana lake was full and then started the process over again. I repeated that training over and over again until I felt like I was going to break and then I kept training anyways.

  I didn’t stop until a System warning popped up in the corner of my right eye. One of the System functions I learned about during my convalescence was the fact that I could set the System to alert me to any unwanted status effects. This warning told me that I now had the Mild Mental Break and Physical Deterioration status effects now. I stopped the training at that point and dragged my sweaty body to the bathroom where I wiped my body down before hopping into bed to sleep for the night. As I drifted off to sleep, I realized that I hadn’t practiced my new rune skill today. I mumbled to myself that I would do double the next day before I slipped into unconsciousness.

Lesser Mana Control (UC) * leveled up!

Pain Control (B) * leveled up!

Beginner Close Combat Footwork (Active) © leveled up!

Beginner Ranged Combat Footwork (Active) © leveled up!

Minor Mana Enhancement (Active) © leveled up!

Minor Mana Vision (Active) © leveled up!

Name: Jason Silver

Job Name: Amateur Chronicler

LVL:11 39%

Job LVL: 1 87%

Job Points:

N/A

*****

0

Titles:

Survivor © LVL 3 13%

Fool © LVL 1 93%

Horde Killer © LVL 1 79%

Beast Killer © LVL 1 85%

Risk Taker © LVL 1 92%

Repeated Risk Taker © LVL 9 99%

Compassionate Fool © LVL 5 26%

Curious Fool © LVL 5 97%

Stupid Fool © LVL 7 96%

Extremely Stubborn Fool © LVL 5 22%

Greater Mana Wielder ® LVL N/A

Title Points:

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16

Stats:

HP:

MP:

Psi:

Mana Regen:

Psi Regen:

Endurance:

Strength:

Speed:

Agility:

Spirit:

Mind:

Bonus Points:

100/170

126/126

22/22

22 per min (-2.75)

1.25 per min (-1)

21

18

18

10

40

1

15

Status Effects:

Regen, Spirit Regen, Disease Resist, Parasite Resist,

Poison Resist, Mild Mental Break, Physical Deterioration

Skills:

Beginner Axe Mastery © LVL 1 99%

Basic Gun Mastery (B) LVL 7 83%

Lesser Regen (Passive) (UC) LVL 2 51%

Basic Regen (Active) (B) LVL 1 0%

Lesser Spirit Regen (Passive) (UC) LVL 1 72%

Minor Disease Resist (Passive) © LVL 3 84%

Minor Parasite Resist (Passive) © LVL 2 16%

Minor Poison Resist (Passive) © LVL 2 3%

Lesser Mana Control (UC) LVL 2 86%

Greater Mana Veins (Passive) ( R ) LVL 1 75%

Flexible Mana Lake (Passive) (B) LVL 6 91%

Pain Control (B) LVL 7 24%

Fear Control (B) LVL 5 63%

Beginner Close Combat Footwork (Active) © LVL 4 62%

Beginner Ranged Combat Footwork (Active) © LVL 3 41%

Beginner Barrier Runes (Active) © LVL 4 14%

Basic Alarm Runes (Active) (B) LVL 1 0%

Minor Mana Enhancement (Active) © LVL 5 39%

Minor Mana Vision (Active) © LVL 4 62%

Flawless Memory (Passive) (B) LVL 1 82%

Quick Thinking (Active) (B) LVL 1 76%

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