Rue awoke, the sun, or more accurately, the light given off by that nuclear ballsack in the sky woke up the usually attentive Child from the heap she was cast into yesterday.
a chance run in with several gangers and scavengers led to her poor predicament, desperate for the supplies the gangers and scavs were transporting she acted to kill them all.
The first three at the head of the transport group were of course the first to die, It was strangely simple to lead the gangers into a more dangerous route if you baited paths with dead bodies and blockages for monsters to hide in.
Then led down the path of her own choice, a heavy and thick steel wire was crudely attached to a pully system to get the jump on the outriders, their bodies were sheared in half by their own rigs, the unstable energies fuelling the bikes breaking down only moments later, obscuring the view of the deaths, Not that the boss needed to see the bodies if the bikes blew, but that moment's thoughts claimed 2 more lives of his underlings.
The second group to die were the side riders, set side by side to the caravan wagon in heavily armoured four wheelers, the bones of a monster acting as the armour of this tank, a strange smell filled the vehicles before the pincered the wagon between them, drivers incapacitated, Luckily for Rue they make the side riders not explode for this very reason.
It was this point where Rue's plan went off what she had expected and planned for, Exploding the outriders, Easy, incapacitating the side riders simultaneously without being noticed, doable but for her, this plan was hinging on the final act going smoothly, The boss was riding the wagon, easy pickings at this point with no defences, Except
when she leapt onto the wagon to kill the driver something unexpected happened.
"Little intrudah makin short workz of me boyz HUH?" a towering figure said in broken common... Shit they sent an ork.
quickly attempting the original plan anyways, energy built in Rue's palm before Rue played a game of death paddy cake with an ork.
Harken was sent cause the big boss said his caravans kept being hit and taken, that and it was about time to teach these slum, sump rats who was in charge of this part of the world. He was not expectin to fight a Sump-rat to the death as her unstable mana impacted against his own, Not expected but when he though about it this one had killed many boyz, if it could use mana even just knowing the energy existed allowed a significant freedom to the users, but feeling the enhanced strikes of the relatively adorable child before him, he could tell both luck and talent took it as far as it had come, and that luck just run out.
"Normalliez I would spare such a fun git, but what da bozz sayz goez kiddo." The ork muttered before loading one of his own palms with a calm reddish energy, flowing in a pool far larger than the child in front of him could possibly have ever seen before, noticing the colour draining from the skeletal youth the ork made his best attempt at what Humans called a smile.
"If ya survoivez dis... Ha what am Oi sayin, no wayz in da noin heks ya could." The ork muttered on, being disappointed that he couldn't take the child into the warband, not orky enough would be the complaint, not to mention the boss of the warband would probably kill him and the kid if he didn't krump it now.
The condensed sphere in his hand had finished condensing, being at a concentration that caused the sphere to materialise partially.
The small child before him looked like they had died before he even ever struck them.
Clearly the child knew the foe before them was incomparably superior, even so, they tried the impossible.
Harken felt the tiny flow of energy in the small being before they impacted their energies, the impact caused her small body to be flung far up into one of the scrap heaps.
"Well, dat iz dat, toime to return to da boss!" He exclaimed before letting the energy in his palm dissipate into the atmosphere. truthfully speaking the ork was terrible at using magic and only performed the basic tricks of mana control but even so there was a qualitative difference between him and Rue due to the formal training he took with other orks, that is to say they beat each other up until the trick was recognised or you died.
That kid given the right environment could have been a mage, easily, but talents are not his job to judge, he was a warrior and gave that kid all the respects he could.
Rue felt sore all over, her body was ablaze with pain, the only reason she was alive right now was seeing that ork's level of mana control gave her the impetus to attempt to condense not only her own mana but the ambient mana around them, that and expanding the shape of the condensation, this changed an instant death into a slow demise by slow deterioration.
The mana currently embedded in her flesh was causing severe tissue damages, the only saving grace being that her head was small enough to have avoided the majority of that blast, shielded as it was by condensed energy.
Breathing in and out to steady her beating heart and ignoring the pain, Rue used her own energy to push out the violent crimson plague inside of her.
Over the course of half an hour she managed to push the energy outside her body, but some of it stayed, and in a small enough quantity that she could control the intense emotion that was a core part of it.
It would be temporary but to be fair her body's condition wasn't good enough that such a boost would help her avoid death, though it did help with her weakened state to move around.
Attempting to move her right arm only to not feel it there, Rue exhaled lifting her left arm.
Relief filled her as while weak, she still had her left arm. To be fair it was kinda to be expected to loose the arm she used to shield her organs and condense the mana she wasn't supposed to be able to, Just learning to use mana control was enough to temporarily paralyze her, she thought that if the ork wasn't there she wouldn't have even attempted to condense mana to that point, using her own mana to reinforce her body alongside the aggressive energies Rue began to move her whole body, then promptly stopped.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Rue screamed before dropping back down clenching her teeth hard hoping that the scream she let out didn't attract unwanted attention.
Opening her eyes, and attempting to feel her body with her remaining hand Rue realised the problem quickly.
She had many broken bones, Of course she did, How could she not, she was flung into a scrap pile, it was already a miracle that she landed on a flat surface at all and not any kind of spike or protrusion, probably clipped one on the way in though, considering she should still have an arm stump but the arm was removed at the shoulder and a significant of the shoulder itself was removed.
"wait, way in?" she said aloud, inspecting her surrounding more closely.
She was in a smooth ball of metal with a roughly human sized hole in the ceiling, the walls were polished metal that gleamed beautifully with the sunshine pouring in from above.
And to her left was a raised platform, on it, a silver plate of some kind.
Finders keepers was the rules of the scrap heap, only question that Rue had was about her wounds, Even if she could heal her internal injuries, the fractured and broken bones then suppress the pain long enough to leave the heap to sell the silver slate, it didn't look very valuable, a completely smooth and glossy plate of an unknown metal might be useful to the smiths maybe, but considering the similarities to the metal the box was made of, (and the fact that she was blown through the material) She didn't feel that it was likely to sell for enough to eat.
Sighing again about how her luck had given her something nobody knew about and she was dying just before getting it, that is to say before the walls started glowing red and blue slightly.
"asdhauheuhfuhdsashjdohawu9hfduahs ashduaw9342q39 sqed]wefgjahwd." (absolutely incomprehensible, basically a different language) the box rumbled
Rue was about to start moving away before she was lifted into the air and the hole in the ceiling closed itself.
"ASdhfgehs whcopwioms wejsfhthe." The box garbled out, either it was very broken or it didn't speak Rue's language, and about this point Rue didn't care since the floor that was plugging her wounds so far had floated away she was leaking blood at an increased rate.
She barely noticed when the box removed her clothing, since the stuff was basically already stripped from her, the only thing that got her attention was a box that appeared in front of her face once the silver plate was placed to her chest.
You have activated the system integration body alteration terminal, Multiple internal injuries detected, Multiple internal bone fractures and breaks detected, Malnutrition detected, Critical blood loss detected, Destabilised Mana Core detected... , Foreign energy detected.....
Do you wish to activate emergency treatment mode?
WARNING: emergency treatment mode will sustain you life at the cost of any nearby material and energy source compatible enough to prolong your Life, loss of these items and energies is not liable for the System's recovery Do you wish to activate this measure?: Y/N
"Y-Y cough YES HACK." Rue spat what little fluid was in her mouth when replying, She didn't understand some of the conditions that it labelled but it sounded like she would die without the help of this "system" and she really didn't have another option, she didn't own anything in this box worth her life to keep a hold of and as for the ork's residual mana, HA he didn't even expect me to live this long let alone care about some expended mana.
Upon receiving the answer from this entity who seemingly accidentally activated its generators, the entity within the gleaming metal box passed out from the blood loss and so the system got to work, Given how unresponsive the creature's vitals were as well as the fact it seems to not feel pain at the moment, absolute haste was needed to preserve this creature's life.
Manipulating the residual energies emanating from the creature which databanks identified as 91.34% Human with trace elven heritage, Excellent, Once emergency measures completed this individual would be capable of exceeding the frame of its heritage.
Hmm missing limb, the system though to itself. To be honest the system though it became insane for a machine, It developed preferences of energy type, races and ideas.
There wasn't enough material to replace the limb itself with a biological equivalent so instead it shed some magicite, Ungodly rare material which was universally the best conductor of mana on the planet, the system wasn't even sure it was natural at this point but a life was in need of saving so it shut down this though process.
The shoulder joint wasn't difficult to repair normally but for now it had to bide its time and only seal the wounds, remotely manipulating the feeble supplies of mana it could extract from its host it cauterised all the external wounds, slowly retrieving the energy from the levitation drives and making damn sure the fumes of energy didn't escape the system turned its all seeing eyes towards the inside of the creature before it, the insides had tons of residual energies permeating the tissues, it seems the residue was not from the host but an assailant, The system felt one of its signature bugs flare at the almost expiration of such a talented individual, hoping for a chance to end that creature's miserable existence. Dropping the proverbial bucket of cold water on this bug to turn its attention on repairing what damages could be repaired with the meagre supplies available, Using the residual crimson tide, Hmm mana of the physical attributes? Unusual but not unusable, the system performed what could be call cohesion of the manas of the host and this Crimson mana causing the mana core to stabilise into a gentle and deep purple, calm on the surface but a roiling furnace of power underneath... PERFECT.
Clapping the core across its surface to get it's attention, the system had a vague conversation with the foreign energy which boiled down to the system telling the newly born core to get its shit together cause they got work to do and if they don't the host will die, which was surprisingly effective the energy moved in correspondence to the system's commands, and in a stunningly short amount of time the host was safe and going to make it, admittedly the system was feeling very proud of what it was able to fix so far, however a few other things needed to be done, the System again took control of the core's movements and used the energy available to refresh the blood that coated the floor below the host and made it renter the body, vitals finally stabilising, the system went to stockpile more energy from the naïve and young core.
After what seemed to be several days, the system continually skimming energy from the core, and the core happily handing the excess energy produced over to the voice that seemed to come from everywhere not knowing the value of such energy.
The system was using the purple energy to sustain the host's body and after a few days of performing the procedure to keep the body from reducing in energy intake the system had enough energy to perform its most ambitious procedure yet, it of course asked the core for its assistance, which it happily agreed.
Using the levitation engine a floating chunk of magicite was being heated and cooled in succession while the levitation field was changed bit by bit to allow the metal to form the proper shape to replace a limb, perhaps the most foolish way to work this material into a workable limb however the system had waited long enough, the host was going to wake from the coma it went into within a day maybe two, it needed to work quickly even if it would need to do more work in the future to fix any deficiencies.
The magical metal, freed of its prison of flimsy metal felt both at liberation but also terrified about what it's captor planned to do with it, It felt the influence of a young mana core of which its energies closely resembled, it kept cooing at the metal as it passed through causing micro changes to structure and shape, at least the mana was nice an honest, it said that it's master was wounded and needed a new limb and that the voice had chosen it to replace the limb.
The Magicite felt that it could coexist with this core, whilst passionate it wasn't brutally aggressive, decisive but calculating.
Over the course of five days these three ancient... well two ancient and one young, entities worked on behalf of Rue, One wished for freedom, One wished for strength and the last wished to live. All wished for Rue to do as she pleased.
Rue awoke a second time to the plasma balls dangling in the sky taunting her, thinking that the screen and her missing arm were a dream, she lifted her right arm only to find a multicoloured metal replacement until she focused on it, at which point her arm turned to her skin colour.
scratching her scruffy hair with the arm, it felt as natural as the one she blocked the ork's mana blast with only that a surge of power sat in the core of it as if to say that we would win that exchange should it happen again, then her gut rumbled, stumbling to her feet, and still naked Rue collected her cloth scraps and covered what she could before climbing out of the heap only to see;
Welcome User to the system, this system is designed to assist you in any endeavour you attempt, It will record your progress across your life and your proficiency with certain skills. The system will also reinforce you in any direction you see fit, it is your life however many changes occur against your will. The system will scan your body to arrange your status and scan equipment to ascertain the ability of used equipment. Currently the system has limited helping capability however there is still two features active, Reinforce and Appraisal Reinforce; The ability to intake mana of any type and use it to manufacture enhancements to the status Appraisal; The ability of the system to make analysis of a target creature or material using the User's senses to do so, once enough mana is accumulated the system can produce more accurate estimations of materials and items as well as their effective uses and power. You are currently in a biological stasis and will need to consume bio matter if you wish to live for a longer period of time. You are currently in a toxic environment and will be passively accruing toxin stacks, it is recommended to find a sterile area or cast detox magic. You are currently in hazardous terrain, movement should be slowed to avoid unnecessary harm to User.
Seeing these blue panels appear caused Rue to violently wish the ork's blast had killed her, dismissing the headache inducing panels she noticed in the corner of her eye there were 3 coloured bars, somehow she intuitively realised that one was representing her current physical health the next was how much mana she had and the third was stamina.
"I guess I could humour this system, Ok System show me my status then." Rue said aloud not particularly certain about the outcome.
Name: Rue
Age: 10
Race: Human(91%)
Gender: Female(immature)
Class: None
Health: 12/12 (48 max)
Mana: 0.2/50 (730)
Statistics;
Strength: 4(6)
Dexterity: 6(8)
Constitution: 3(4)
Resilience: 4(12)
Wisdom: 5(7)
Intelligence: 10
Charisma: 2
Perception: 4
Passive skills:
Poison & Disease resistance: Level 5
Active skills:
Stealth: level 3
Mana control: level 2 +level up
Mana Blast: level 1 (new)
Survival: level 7
Trapping: level 2
Unique skills:
Assisted Control
Composite body
Passion core
Status effects:
Malnourished - severe
Status reduction (malnourishment)
Toxin build-up 1/110 +1/minute
"By Tanna's Great tits, what the hell are these "Unique skills"?" Rue said and almost regretted saying.
Assisted Control:
A large portion of an advanced AI resides within your body, this enables the AI to assist with controlling your mana, this combined with the material making up your body make casting magic of any kind exceptionally efficient, even being capable of processing residual mana back into usable energy.
Composite body:
Your body is now made of more than just biological material and constantly infused with powerful magics to make sure that it cannot reject the extra components of your body, this provides additional resistance stats depending on material as well as other stats, it is possible to make further modifications to your own body while the magic is still fresh, this skill will be converted into a passive skill once a certain time threshold passes.
Passion core:
Your mana core is a dual core of physical mana and Arcane mana which has merged and become a completely new type of mana, it can be used for both standard casting and Physical magics which use magic to reinforce or restore the physical body in specific ways, arcane mana is used by mages to defy and bend the laws of physics to their benefit.
"Um ok I guess, extra healing is rather useful, and I guess that I truly did lose my right arm then I kinda want to know more but I need to eattttt." Rue murmured out as she spotted several Sump-cats, their skin an ebony colour and their bodies small but still larger than Rue, Rue though about what to do, if she could cast conventional magic properly then it would be no problem to just kill all of them with a fireball or something, then Rue noticed something from the other side of her vision, a flashing exclamation mark.
Thinking on it yet another screen opened itself
Congratulations user, you have gained a status point, you may allocate a status point to enhance your status or you may purchase a skill from the skill shop if you have the prerequisites, Which option would you like to peruse?
"Ok getting more convenient, though which one should I do?" Rue said.
Thinking strictly about the extra stats, extra stats were useless if it were only one or two and even if they are more than that with my status effects reducing my stats I can't truly benefit enough to beat 3 fully grown sump-cats skills were obviously the way to go.
"Open skill shop." Rue said and to her expectation yet another box opened up.
Skill shop Skill options:
Arcane magic technique
Physical magic technique
Fusion mana style
Skill advancement: poison & Disease resistance
Metal's strength
Magical mind
Unarmed fighting technique
Mana overclock: Self
Elemental magic technique
Spacial magic technique
Nature magic technique
Enhanced attributes (abbreviated for sake of space)
Assassination technique
Salvaging
Crafting: salvage Points available: 1 Skills in cart: 0
Assuming that the system kept skills I either couldn't afford or skills that were not available to begin with I have to think logically about the best options for defeating Sump-cats.
First things first all physical enhancements whether magical or not are banned, no matter how good the skill itself I am still a disadvantage against three agile and high tier predators of the scrapyard.
Next knock off the exotic magic types, they may be useful but it is essentially useless if I cannot EAT, What are we left with?
Arcane magic technique
Unarmed fighting technique
Fusion mana style
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Skill advancement
Magical mind
Elemental magic technique
Assassination technique
Salvaging
Crafting: salvage
"What?" Rue said dumbfounded
'Must be able to hear my thoughts, huh creepy but handy'
'as useful as a crafting ability would be I don't know the extent of the skills given to me by the system so I will hold off for now'
'then the skill advancement, while it would slow the toxin build-up, I have plenty of time before it becomes an issue.'
'probably say no to unarmed fighting and Assassination techniques since I don't want to get closer to these clawed blenders.'
'Magical mind says that it is an enhancement to brainpower and mana control, considering the assisted control skill I have I don't need this one right now.'
'That leaves arcane and elemental magic techniques as well as fusion mana style, immediately fusion style is off since it is a skill about controlling two different energies then combining the effect, since I have passion core I can't use more than one energy aside from ambient mana and that is too risky.'
'so Elemental magics or arcane magics, from their descriptions arcane magic is more difficult to master but has a very broad range of effects and capabilities vs elemental magic which is technically a specific form of arcane magics but enables greater fluency in manipulating existing elements in the world.... Hmmm.'
Rue considered her choices, on one hand Arcane magics were very useful and given the arm she had she could very likely pull off some very impressive displays of magic, elemental magics though were considerably less versatile but easy to level, from what the system was telling her to get Arcane magic technique normally requires the fusion of several other skills into the Arcane magic skill elemental magics was a lower level by comparison but was still several skill evolutions before it could reasonably be obtained by natural methods.
"Purchase Arcane magic technique." Rue said with a determined voice.
Will you purchase the skill Arcane magic technique?
Y/N
"Yes." Rue answered, a sensation of a cool orb entered her head, calming her headache from the days of uncomfortable positioning.
and then a voice in her head said "You have acquired the Arcane magic technique skill, checking for compatibility and talent."
"Hmm?" Rue was confused since the shop said nothing about this part of the skill purchase.
"Check complete, Skill Arcane Magic technique acquired at level 2... Forceful adjustment detected.... Skill level up Arcane Magic Technique is now level 3."
Knowledge flowed into Rue's mind and poured down and diverted into her right arm, when she opened her eyes she had all the knowledge she needed to kill these sump-cats although it would take longer than she would like.
'My mana is almost full, huh, must have been checking the screens longer than I thought.'
Taking the mana generated during purchasing the skill, Rue got to work building a trap for the Sump-cats, while she could wave her arm to produce bolts of energy to end their pathetic lives, it was a far too inefficient method that Rue's senses were telling her not to follow, though what Rue didn't expect was for Arcane magic to rely so heavily on objects and casting through glyphs and the like, The skill was almost a crafting one as she prepared some of the scrap material around her, picking the most conductive material nearby for her first focus she began shaping a weapon.
At first there was a cylinder, the outside was burned with arcane symbols and sealed with a thick rubbery material, then a handle was attached from nearby debris, With a few infusions of the skill that Rue obtained a comfortable handle was formed, And thus Rue's first handgun was formed, Crude beyond measure but significantly better for preserving her magical energies which her body depended upon to live.
Finishing her work on the "gun" she wielded it and activated the appraisal function of the system to see just how effective her crude construction would fair
Name: Providence
Durability: 15/15
Type: Magic focus
Material: 70% Aluminium 30% Hardened plant matter
Equip effect:
Reduces Spell glyph cost by 50%
+3 spell attack damage
Magic attack: Magic bullet
conjures a physical bullet and speeds it up as a magical and physical attack
Average assumed damage: 13-23 magical piercing damage
Requires 5MP to cast
System's blessing:
Any excess mana used for spells is redirected upon the User as a mana shield (0/30).
"Hmm, that is a lot better than what I expected, and this system's blessing is very useful." Rue muttered on before feeling an intense pain in her gut
Status effect: Malnutrition has advanced into Malnutrition(Very severe)
currently under an additional effect: Starvation(minor) -2Hp/hour
Currently you have an estimated 5 hours to live if you don't eat anything.
"aaaah, shit I forgot." Rue looked around while saying pointing her gun around to find the sump-cats who had seemingly disappeared.
SLASH as Rue was working the sump-cats clearly noticed the small human working on something and went into hiding to catch her unaware, Rue was too busy with the system to realise this and as a result.
You have taken 8 points of slashing damage
You have taken critical damage
Status effect: Bleeding Has been resisted by expending 10 mana
You have 15 mana points left
You have 2 HP left
Recomm-
Twisting her body and disregarding the system which had caused this distraction unintentionally, Rue focused her mind on her core and right arm begging both the start to draw their energies into the weapon. Her right arm and core working in tandem loaded the mana in quickly and the cylinder glowed in her purple hue before something was flung out of the tube at a speed that Rue couldn't track.
Beginners luck or Rue's survival level 7 at work either way, the first creature was nailed in the face before a large hole opened up in it.
The beginners level spell magic bullet was modified slightly so that once the spell hit the effect of mana blast would happen, not by the weapon either that was the power of the passion core and the rare metal mixing with perfect knowledge of low level effects of Arcane magics that the system imbued Rue's mind.
The other Two cats were terrified as their boss had died instantly before he could react.
Rue fired twice more before collapsing, her body starving for the mana it had in abundance only moments ago.
Shakes went up her legs and through her arms and she felt her mortality in a very decisive way.
Maybe this wouldn't have happened if she had just attacked them without the focus, she shook her head no.
Providence was buffing her damage, mana efficiency and defences, even now Rue could feel the minute wall of force separating her from the environment.
She couldn't let herself slip up like that again, and so she vowed to live her life as far as she could being as powerful as possible, Nobody wanted to die to a sump-cat.
After a few moments she could move again, her mana reserves bottomed but no longer empty, but yet again she was almost entirely naked, since the cat took a swipe at her chest, the cloth covering there had another cut in it.
Not caring enough to try to fix the problem with her clothes, Rue dragged the body of the two sump-cats she managed to hit into the metal box that she woke in.
The box was at the least secure with a single entrance.
Dropping the cats into the box and lowering herself slowly Rue took stock of what the situation was.
1. I am too injured to fight or even be found
2. My gun is powerful enough to ward off most scavengers
3. I need to refine my skills enough to leave the scrap heaps
4. HUNGERY
"ok enough monologuing I need to cook these cats." Rue said continuing to monologue despite verbally chastising herself.
Using the same technique as earlier to form a permanent mana circuit on the floor, Rue started a small flame, Balancing the consumption of the formation to her passive mana regeneration She began to strip the sump-cats inside the box as the sunlight moved along it's course.
Magical fire is essentially visualised heat, especially when made by an arcane formation so no smoke could be created.
Skinning the cats with some jagged chunks of metal kept handy, Rue didn't neglect an opportunity to get more hides to make clothing, While her skin rarely succumbed to the sun the chocolate colour was eye-catching against a black and grey surroundings.
It didn't take very long for the sump cat to cook and release a horrible stench, unfazed by this Rue began to eat the two cats, less charcoal than her usual cooking methods, but still by no means a tasty or appealing dish.
Status effect: Starving has been cleansed
Status effect: Malnourished(Very severe) has degraded to Malnourished(severe)
"Hmm, open status."
Name: Rue
Age: 10
Race: Human(91%)
Gender: Female(immature)
Class: None
Health: 3/18 (48 max) + condition improved
Mana: 2/50 (730)
Statistics;
Strength: 4(6)
Dexterity: 6(8)
Constitution: 3(4)
Resilience: 8(12)
Wisdom: 5(7)
Intelligence: 10
Charisma: 2
Perception: 5 + Skill increase baseline (Danger sense)
Passive skills:
Poison & Disease resistance: Level 5
Active skills:
Stealth: level 3
Mana control: level 3 + level up
Mana Blast: level 2 + level up
Survival: level 8 + level up + Derivative skill earnt: Danger Sense
Trapping: level 2
Danger sense: Level 1 (new)
Arcane Magic Technique: level 3 (new)
Unique skills:
Assisted Control
Composite body
Passion core
Status effects:
Malnourished - severe
Status reduction (malnourishment)
Toxin build-up 87/120 -10/minute
'Hmm, it seems that the more desperate I am the faster skills level, although it isn't completely clear what these stats do specifically, I mean strength is obviously how physically powerful I am what does resilience do though?'
Resilience:
Defined inside the system as the body's natural ability to resist external affliction and stamina, incidentally for your race a baseline is approximated at a 6-8 points.
The status effect: Toxin build-up is currently dictated by your unreduced resilience * (5 + level of poison resistance)
To an extent Resilience also dictates your natural health recovery, however since obtaining a dual mana core, wisdom has been far more useful in regenerating your body.
'Hmm, so stats and skills have effects that scale off each other and so on?'
'Man, this is way too complicated, I'm glad that I'm alive but it doesn't fill me with confidence that this has happened so fast.' Rue sighed
Certainly she couldn't even believe that she was still alive let alone the magical glowing blue plates in her vision.
'I wonder if I can get better explanations for my skills too?' A small amount of time passed 'Ok I guess I need to be specific, um... what does survival do?'
Survival: Skill type: Knowledge & experience
The Survival skill is a representation of how well you know how to avoid dying in hostile environments, how to find edible matter, how to find drinkable water, your own body's tolerance to poisons to make the previous two possible.
At higher levels this skill can unlock several instinct based skills that enable snap decisions based on incomplete information on various life threatening stimuli.
At Level 8 your knowledge is perfect in environments you are familiar with and some of the knowledge transfers over to similarly dangerous environments but at a reduced certainty.
At the level of 8 this skill can also substitute for some other skills that tie into survival such as dismantling, tracking and so on.
'Ok what about the Arcane magic technique?' Rue thought.
Arcane magic technique: Skill type: Techniques & theory
This is an all encompassing mana manipulation and understanding skill, The Possessor of this skill has exceptional knowledge and talent with mana and these two factors have given them access to a universal Technique which can produce most magical effects.
The downsides to this skill is the mana requirements and the time investment for proper magical tools, since this technique is heavily object orientated it possesses a minor crafting aspect, However even a level 1 crafting skill would eclipse the capabilities of this one for crafting.
That said this skill is a must have for anyone capable of using mana.
'Hmm so I should go into crafting then? maybe later when I have left the scrap heap.' Rue thought before turning her attention to her sidearm.
providence is useful, however for my level of skill it is inferior.
'and what is this number next to my mana?'
Mana: 47/50 (730)
This is a numeric expression for the total capacity of mana inside your core, the number inside the brackets is your effective maximum ceiling for mana control.
Note that this control number is due to the unique skill assisted control.
Your mana regeneration is also dictated by intelligence * (mana control + any available bonus)/hours, your current regen is 1300/hour or 21/minute. (this number can change based on bodily condition and exhaustion)
'Alright I have had enough of these screens, and though I am still full I want to find more prey.' Rue thought and as she did she felt a odd sense of incongruity, like she was missing something.
clonk clonk clonk..... Sniffff Rue bolted onto her feet weapon drawn and held in her right hand, training her aim on the hole in the ceiling and remembering that her mana was basically full.
To her chagrin several whiskered heads peaked over the hole in the top of her shelter, a momentary though that she would need to plug that hole flashed across her awareness before the creatures jumped down in their numbers and Rue began firing indiscriminately.
These cats were larger than the ones she had eaten earlier, But her weapon was still killing them in a single shot, maybe two at once if she shot in the right position.
Dashing madly around the small enclosed box which was maybe 10 meters on a single side (~30ft), but the bodies piled and more than ten came into the box, admittedly having to squeeze passed the dead bodies.
a swipe from the creature that pulled itself into the enclosed space almost took another chunk out of Rue's thin body, she needed only 15 seconds, then she could blow this cat to hell where it belonged.
Entire reason Sump cats were killed on sight wasn't just because they were monsters that killed the less fortunate on a regular basis, it was because of their ability to multiply, and yes even as the system put it, they could multiply with even 'Immature' members of any species, to put it lightly.
Rue was damned if she would ever let a single one live after the death it almost gave her, but she had to buy time before she could kill it.
Dodging, ducking and rolling around the significantly smaller space the cat the size of a full grown man ,if they were to lie down, kept getting caught on its dead brethren before Rue tripped and it closed in.
And a hole appeared instead of its head.
Lucky and unlucky the pendulum swings these days but at the moment, Rue was lucky, both unmolested and now having an ample supply of meat to feed her and remove this stupid status effect.
"What did malnourishment even mean? Did I even want to know?" Rue spoke her thoughts aloud again, a bad habit she picked up from her time in the slavers camp.
What she did know is that she had a lot of food to eat. And some skills to train
Skill acquired: Gunmanship
Skill acquired: Steady hands
After cooking and eating the small pile of meat which so happily jumped into her home, Rue was significantly widened in the gut area and needed to close that hole in the roof of her hidey hole.
Climbing back up she found several larger slabs of material and fused them together with some of the magics she learnt from purchasing the Arcane magic skill, Inefficient, sure but there was no way in the 12 hells that Rue was risking taking on another pack of sump cats, no matter if she could easily wipe them out they still scared her.
Back in the now enclosed box Rue began to fiddle around with her Arcane Magic Technique skill as well as attempt to craft things without it, She had a few days worth of cats still left and was not leaving the safety of this box without being prepared.
Drinking a clear red fluid in-between treating the hides of the sump-cats which she had skinned off their bodies, Rue had made several more cloaks to obscure herself and had even applied a light enchantment that could repair them if mana was supplied and the components were still nearby, it was getting pretty annoying to set off every sump-cat colony in a 100m radius around her.
That and she was attempting to make a better weapon, mostly because sump-cats and almost every other creature in the sump appear in more than groups of 10 so Rue really wanted to have that shot limit to increase before taking on any more large hordes of sump creatures.
And after perusing her options and attempting to fix the problems this is what Rue came up with.
Name: Reverence
Durability: 10/10
Type: Magical firearm
Material: 70% Aluminium 15% Hardened plant matter 10% steel 5% animal hide
Equip effect:
Reduces Spell glyph cost by 70%
+5 spell attack damage
Magic attack: Magic bullet
conjures a physical bullet and speeds it up as a magical and physical attack
Average assumed damage: 15-25 magical piercing damage
Requires 3MP to cast
System's blessing:
Any excess mana used for spells is redirected upon the User as a mana shield (0/10).
Internal mana capacity: 15/15 MP
Overall, still crude, BUT having an additional 5 shots available is a lifesaver when even a single shot can kill most things.
'Given my inexperience with crafting I would say that this is a good outcome, though the name is a little weird, not to mention because of assisted control, every bullet I fire causes a mana blast, so I can't complain at the damage right now.'
Not only that she had also apparently made some low tier armour to boot.
Name: Sumpcoat
Type: Clothing: Armor
Material: Sump-cat leathers (100%)
Equip effect:
+10% resistance to environmental damages
+1% damage resistance
+50% Stealth effect
Regenerative enhancement:
The powerful vitality of the original creature has been harnessed in a different way to the original creature this leather came from
+.5% Health regen while worn
Mana can be consumed to repair this full body Armour
Rue was happy about the qualities of the Sumpcoat, sure crude armour with poor quality thread made of the sump-cat tendons enchanted with some pretty lacklustre enhancements to boot, not an issue, the Sumpcoat fit her current strategy to a T, avoid direct confrontation and outlast them.
Optimally the regen buff would have been to mana rather than Hp but it is still very useful, not to mention comfortable, for a full body covering armour it was light, comfortable and not too warm either.
Best part was that she made three sets of them, so she didn't have to worry about always repairing them.
Aside from these items of note, Rue made several other items between knives, holsters, a backpack, cook pan, Fluid purifier and armguards which all turned out mundane she gained enough that she wasn't worried when she looked up and saw that the pile of dead Cat bodies had disappeared into her stomach.
By the end of the week that she was blown into the top of this heap her status looked like this
Name: Rue
Age: 10
Race: Human(91%)
Gender: Female(immature)
Class: None
Health: 48/48 (48 max) + condition restored
Mana: 2/50 (730)
Statistics;
Strength: 6
Dexterity: 8
Constitution: 4
Resilience: 12
Wisdom: 7
Intelligence: 10
Charisma: 2
Perception: 5
Passive skills:
Poison & Disease resistance: Level 5
Hunger & thirst resistance: level 1 (new)
Steady hands: level 1 (new)
Active skills:
Stealth: level 3
Mana control: level 4 + level up
Mana Blast: level 2
Mana compression: level 1 (new)
Survival: level 8
Craft: leatherworking: level 1 (new)
Craft: Tinkering: level 1 (new)
Trapping: level 2
Danger sense: Level 1 (new)
Arcane Magic Technique: level 3 (new)
Gunmanship: level 1 (new)
Unique skills:
Assisted Control
Composite body
Passion core
Status effects:
Toxin immunity 70%(Sump air)
Items equipped:
Reverence
Sumpcoat
Rue believed she was ready to begin hunting at this point, only time would tell.
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Skills gunmanship & steady hands
These skills are pretty self explanatory one being the techniques to deal with firearms magical or not and the other is a passive ability which increases the manual dexterity of the grasper limbs and stabilises them, increasing accuracy and dexterity for smaller tasks, for Rue this helps not only the gunmanship this assists her crafting skills but also her arcane magic skill, since it allows the manipulation of her hands, and several spells have hand gestures involved in casting them.
Author's note (first chapter doesn't let me write one)
OHHH this one is gonna be a doozy, this is the first time I am going to tick all the warning boxes on a fiction entirely since I wish to make this one more graphic, I will censor segments that I believe are a little gratuitous to be kind to the more delicate readers but overall this is going to be a very whimsey story with possibly a great deal of incoherence since this is my first time writing a litrpg, feel free to leave comments about any inconsistencies or story details you would like to see explored some may be revealed naturally some may slip my mind like the ninjas they are.
Have a good day and stay beautiful ;)
-SFS