Chapter 29_Chronicler’s Tale

New World Day 10

Until I took notice of the mosquitos, they had been buzzing through the air aimlessly in the stairway, but once I noticed them, they noticed me too. Everyone of the suckers hovered in the air for a moment before bolting down the stairs right at me. I threw the last towel onto my shoulder and put the roll of duct tape around my right wrist before I pulled out the lighter and the WD-40 from my pocket. I held one in each hand and made sure to keep them well in front of me for safety’s sake. I aimed the can up the stairwell towards the small swarm of mosquitoes descending upon me, lit the lighter, and sprayed the WD-40 at the mosquitoes. As the flammable liquid passed through the small flame, a terrible stench resembling burning plastic filled the air as a burst of fire rushed up the stairwell and attempted to incinerate the mosquitoes.

I had to hand it to those little buggers. They were tough bastards, but I sent four more blasts of fire up the stairwell just to be safe. There were small pockets of flames still burning along the walls and steps of the stairwell, but all of the mosquitoes were dead. The first batch at least. Even as I surveyed my handiwork, I saw through my hazy vision at least a dozen more slip through the cracks of the doorway. Those small fires would have to wait for later. I needed to get that door covered asap.

Ignoring the flames inching up the walls and stairs, I charged up half the stairwell before I sent out another half dozen blasts of fire from my makeshift flamethrower. The gouts of fire made short work of the mosquitos, but another swarm slipped through the cracks before I could run up even a few more steps. The entire stairwell was practically on fire already, but there was no other choice. I couldn’t deal with so many at once any other way, and it was only going to get worse. At this rate, I would never make it up the stairwell before the entire house went up in flames. I had tried to control how much fire I used to this point, but now I held down both buttons and sent a continuous blast of fire up the stairwell as I charged up the remaining steps to the door.

The door to the first floor was covered in patches of flames by the time I reached it, and I had to use the towel on my shoulder to smother them. After the fires on the door were out, I wasted no time in ripping off multiple strips of duct tape from the roll on my right wrist and spreading the towel across the entire door way. Halfway through affixing the towel to the doorway, numbness began to radiate out through my entire back starting from my lower left back right above my left butt cheek. One of the little bastards must have survived the fire or slipped through the cracks unnoticed. My first instinct was to swat it off me, but before my instincts took over, I realized that if I did that then more would have a chance to slip through the cracks in the doorway at which point I was going to end up a sack of skin and bones like the forest coyotes out in the driveway and forest. Instead, I twisted my body to the right and slammed my back into the wall with all of my strength as I continued to seal off all entry to the basement with the towel and duct tape. Five slams later, I had left a human sized dent in the wall of the stairwell and a small red speck fell lifeless onto the top step. I stomped on the bastard for good measure as I finished up sealing the doorway.

When I twisted my body to slam my back into the wall, I also gave myself a side view of the stairwell and the growing inferno I had started within it. The burning plastic smell of the burnt WD-40 mixed with the surprisingly nice smell of burning wooden steps into a bastardized stench that reminded me of sulfur and wracked my body with coughing fits. Shit, if I didn’t hurry, I was going to burn myself alive if the smoke didn’t get me first. The towels did a good job of keeping out the mosquitoes who were too stupid to use their needle like mouths to cut holes in the towels, but they also trapped almost all of the smoke in the basement with me. I stumbled down the stairwell relying on my still circulating mana and the railing along the wall to make up for my numb leg, back and arm and burst through flickering flames into the bedroom proper. My first stop was the bathroom where I grabbed another towel from under the sink. All of the beach towels had been used for the doors so the only one left was a larger than average hand towel. I seized the towel with my right hand and ran over to the door to the workshop where I had put the bucket and cup which I snatched with my left hand. I didn’t trust my numb right hand with that heavy of a weight yet.

Only a dozen seconds had passed since I had left the stairwell, but the fire had already spread even further. I put the bucket down at the base of the stairwell and dipped the towel into the bucket. Then I started to smother the nearest flames with it as I took the cup in my other hand and splashed other patches with cups of water. The cups of water had some effect on the smaller patches of fire, but they weren’t having much effect on the larger more dangerous patches. I abandoned the cup and concentrated on smothering the fire with the hand towel. As I worked to smother the flames with the large hand towel, strands of fire escaped out either side and twirled around my arms and legs like vines made of fire. The strands set my shirt and pants ablaze and sent searing pulses of pain through my left arm and right leg. The numbness from those damn mosquitoes was good for something after all. The pain was within the acceptable range at the moment, but if my other two limbs were added in, it might even reach the level of pain I felt when I created my last two mana veins. My blazing clothes were less important than fire spreading through the stairwell, but the pain from the burns combined with the growing cloud of smoke made it hard to continue putting out the flames. In order to keep the pain somewhat under control, I started to alternate between smothering one flame in the stairwell and then whipping one patch of flaming clothing with the damp cloth. The quick whips didn’t tend to put out the fires on my clothing entirely, but they kept them under control.

I found my mind starting to drift and my vision grow increasingly blurry as I put out fire after fire. I don’t know if it was the smoke, the pain, or the massive blood loss from the mosquitoes, but I started to see things hidden in the flames. In the places where the fire burnt it was like there were a green mist emerging from the planks of wood. The green mist rose up from the planks and mixed with streams of red that grew out of the depths of the flames. When the mist passed through the streams it emerged from the other side black, burnt, and lifeless. For some reason that my conscious mind didn’t yet understand, that black mist caused my body to recoil and shiver in fear. There wasn’t a lot of it, and after I started to see it, I made sure to avoid it at all costs. The green mist had the opposite effect on me. It gave me a warm cozy feeling that reminded me of home, of family and friends, and of better times. The firefighting evolved into an odd game of tag. I twisted and turned to avoid the black mist but tried to run through the green mist all while working to put out the fire.

Each time I managed to walk through a cloud of green mist, there was a slight change in my body. The change was slight enough that I didn’t notice it at first, but by the sixth cloud, I started to see the change. The constant circulation of my mana had filled my entire physical and spiritual body to the brim with mana. Now when I passed through these clouds of green mist, I felt my mana react to the mist and creep towards my eyes and the growing burns on my arms and legs. Was this my regeneration skills at work? I had never been able to feel let alone see those two skills working, but now with this strange sight, I saw the particles of green mist pass into my body and merge with my mana. Small portions of my mana then gathered around the worst of my injuries and began to heal them.

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Damn! As interesting as all of this was, I needed to concentrate on the fire. The fact that my mind was this distracted in such circumstances didn’t bode well for me. I had the distinct feeling that if I pulled up my Status at this moment that I would have only a sliver of HP left. Concentrate Jason! I almost had the fire put out. Just a bit more. Just a bit more. I began to say that same thing out loud over and over again like a Buddhist chant until finally, against all odds it was done. I was at the top of the steps and all of the fires were out. I had no time to celebrate my success though. I succeeded in putting out the fires, but there was nothing I could do about the smoke that wouldn’t let in more mosquitoes. The smoke filled the stairway, and I was in the worst spot I could be in right now. A coughing fit tore through my body and broke my circulation of mana as smoke filled my lungs. The accumulated mana within my body dissipated at a rapid pace. Without the mana to support my beat up body, I didn’t even have the strength to stand anymore. I collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut and tumbled down the entire length of the stairwell. The fall down the stairs left me with over a dozen bruises and a deep cut above my right eye, but it was a blessing despite the new wounds. I was out of the worst of the smoke, and I didn’t break my neck in the fall. I couldn’t really ask for more.

You have reached level 5!

4 bonus stat points have been awarded!

You have reached level 6!

4 bonus stat points have been awarded!

You have reached level 7!

4 bonus stat points have been awarded!

Survivor (B) * has leveled up!

Pack Killer (B) * has evolved into Swarm Killer (B) **

Swarm Killer (B) ** has leveled up!

Beast Killer (B) * has leveled up!

Basic Spirit Regeneration (Passive) (B) * leveled up!

Minor Regen (Passive) ( C ) * leveled up!

Name: Jason Silver

Job Name: N/A

LVL: 7 84%

Job LVL: N/A 0%

Job Points:

N/A

Titles:

Survivor (B) LVL 7 73%

Fool (B) LVL 7 90%

Swarm Killer (B) LVL 8 55%

Beast Killer (B) LVL 8 48%

Risk Taker (B) LVL 5 97%

Repeated Risk Taker ( C ) LVL 6 14%

Compassionate Fool ( C ) LVL 1 78%

Curious Fool ( C ) LVL 3 71%

Stupid Fool ( C ) LVL 3 37%

Extremely Stubborn Fool ( C ) LVL 2 97%

Uncommon Mana Wielder (UC) LVL N/A

Title Points:

*****

Stats:

HP:

MP:

Mana Regen:

Endurance:

Strength:

Speed:

Spirit

Bonus Points:

7/125

19/42

7.50 per min (-2.75)

Status Effects:

Regen, Spirit Regen, Disease Resist, Parasite Resist,

Poison Resist, Blurred Vision, Burns x30,

Bruises x8, Bleeding x1

Skills:

Basic Axe Mastery (B) LVL 7 56%

Basic Gun Mastery (B) LVL 4 78%

Minor Regen (Passive) ( C ) LVL 5 1%

Basic Spirit Regen (Passive) (B) LVL 9 5%

Basic Disease Resist (Passive) (B) LVL 6 88%

Basic Parasite Resist (Passive) (B) LVL 6 94%

Basic Poison Resist (Passive) (B) LVL 5 17%

Lesser Mana Vein (Passive) (UC) LVL 1 0%

Flexible Mana Lake (Passive) (B) LVL 1 0%

Pain Control (B) LVL 1 67%

Basic Close Combat Footwork (Active) (B) LVL 1 83%

Basic Ranged Combat Footwork (Active) (B) LVL 1 92%

*****

***

Chapter 29

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