Chapter 35:

Alice dove to the ground, narrowly avoiding the projectile of salt flying over her head. From her prone position, she pointed to the large group of salt elementals attempting to get at their transportation while Titus stood stalwartly between them and the ATV. From the tips of her fingers, a mana bolt flew, smashing apart one of the weakened elementals creeping up around Titus's left.

This had become more of a problem recently, with monsters not coming alone but in groups. The pack of eight—now seven—elementals were between levels 15 and 20. They were a bit higher than the two humans, but Alice found that their intelligence was rather low at first. Now though, they were changing and adapting at a swift frequency. As more of them gathered, they used more tactics, as if they were some sort of hive mind.

It freaked her out a little bit, so she didn't think about it too much. Instead, she just tried to stay as flat as possible, presenting a small target while firing off as many bolts as she could.

She had a decent reservoir of power now. She could fire off almost a dozen bolts before she was low on mana and had to scramble around, avoiding hits for several moments. Titus was still the more effective fighter. He hadn't done a volley this time because spears didn't seem to be the best for piercing against elementals. Instead, he was using his spear more like a quarterstaff, smashing the end of it against joints in fragile crystal structures and bashing the elementals to bits. Titus moved as if he was a weird mix of dancing and bullfighting, an elegant grace punctuated by sharp movements of savage fury. Not once did he even look like he was coming close to being hit or in danger.

But Titus getting injured wasn't one of Alice's concerns. Not at all. No, she was much more concerned about the ATV being destroyed and having to walk the remaining 30 miles to their destination. That would slow them down from taking a couple of hours to over a day. Well, maybe not quite a day with their enhanced stats, but it was still more than a marathon, and time was of the essence.

As she rolled to avoid another projectile that some of the more attentive elementals in the back flung at her, she worked on pulling the mana both from the internal well inside her and the mana surrounding her in the world.

She combined them and fed them into the little bundle she was forming. Because of the square-cube law, its rate of growth by diameter had shrunk drastically. It hadn't taken much time to go from a grain of sand to a pea, but now it wasn't even quite the size of a marble, just a slightly larger pea. Still, the amount of volume and power she could pull out of it was intense.

Instead of stemming the tide, as she did by habit at this point, she let the power roil through her. She could feel a slight ache as it battered through her normally constricted channels instead of welling up in a reservoir for later. But that was fine because she was spending it as fast as she could gather it, sending off a new projectile every ten seconds or so. By then, the majority of the elementals were taken care of, and she only needed to pick off the ones that seemed like they might be able to make it around Titus.

Shakily getting to her feet, she started walking closer as the last one was pulverized by a rapid series of strikes. Titus was not quite panting but breathing slightly heavily, with a sheen of sweat on his face. As she strode up to him, he looked at her.

"Well, at least I'm not the only one slightly out of sorts," he said.

Alice blushed and patted at the slightly wet spots on her clothes and the bits of debris that had accumulated on them. It was kind of a lost cause, and she'd have to ask Titus for another change of clothes from his inventory.

"Congrats on the level-up," she said. Titus had finally hit level 17, and they had predicted he would get his next skill at this point. "Were we right about the skill?"

Titus nodded. "Yes, I now have [Map]. Nothing else caught my eye. Well, it confirms mostly what you've said, and so far, it mostly shows just the places we've been. But as I level it, maybe it'll show more," he said hopefully.

Alice shrugged. "Hope so. Once the satellites finally finish failing, we're not going to have access to our phones. I'd guess GPS won't hold for much longer, at least." she said. "I'm surprised the cell towers are still operating."

Titus shrugged. "Well, we still have power, so clearly, the randomization didn't destroy everything. If anything, the cell coverage is better than it used to be. Perhaps the towers were placed more strategically now that the land mass has changed. But things are slowly starting to go offline. It's either monsters or just a lack of maintenance. I don't really know how much maintenance cell towers require. Still, I'm worried about something like a cascading failure if one falls down and the others can't handle the load."

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Titus snorted. "What load? There are twenty people using them right now."

"Well, most of the traffic is automated," Alice said. "I suppose that's probably a bit of an unfair concern, but still. I wouldn't want to count on anything lasting. I feel much better that you have a map."

"What about you?" Titus asked. Alice had also leveled up to 13. She didn't get the several levels that Titus had. However, it was still a noticeable increase as she was so new to her E-rank evolution. She had just dumped the three points into power, working on boosting her stat. It seemed to increase both how much mana she could hold and how much impact each one of her spells had. It was clearly the best stat for her. She didn't really have a problem casting anything faster, and her control was good enough. Titus. What more did she really need?

She pulled up her stat screen, and waiting for her was the skill selection just as they had expected.

Name: Alice Wright

Titles: Mother of All, Tertius

Perks: Quick Learner, Agelessness

Level: 13 - E

Speed: 13

Power: 25

Control: 13

—

Physical: 2

Magic: 5

* Warlock

* [Pact Bond] - lvl 2

* [Life drain] - lvl 3

* [Communion] - lvl 1

* Gen Skills

* [System Identification] - lvl 2

* [Mana sight] - lvl 4

* [Mana Bolt] - lvl 5

1. unassigned

She scrolled through the list of skill choices available to her. Many things weren't there anymore, but they weren't things she had ever planned on taking.

"Is there anything we need?" she asked Titus, thinking about the needs of the party.

Titus shook his head. "No. You need some more survivability. [Life Drain] is just not enough for you."

It was something that she had active nearly constantly whenever they were near an enemy. Still, it was very small, less than a percent at the moment. However, ever since it had gotten to level two and then eventually three, it had improved slightly. It helped her refill her mana a little bit faster, just increasing the absorption rate from ambient mana, not necessarily the internal production. And it did heal her very, very slowly.

She thought it would take an hour or two to drain one solid elemental around her level with the life drain. Perhaps those weren't creatures with a lot of life in them, being elementals, but she hadn't had anything else to test it on.

"I mean," Alice said, flexing her scrawny arm, "All this power has got to be doing something for my health." She wasn't exactly sure how that worked, but she definitely felt more solid.

"Still," Titus said, "I would like to know you could take a hit or two if really necessary."

"I did see a few things. The first skill was [Improved Constitution], which would increase my body's power. But the second skill is more interesting," she read it out to Titus. "[Second Chance]. It'll save you from a deadly blow once per day."

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I can't believe I had to pick [Map] when something like that might have been an option."

"You did look at your options, right?"

Titus nodded. "Yeah, I did, but [Map] was probably still the best. But still, I want to have cockroach skills. You're lucky," Titus mumbled, and Alice couldn't help but smile.

"Shut up, HM slave. Or next time, you're taking [Surf]."

Titus raised an eyebrow, seemingly getting the reference. "I am not taking [Cut]," he said sternly, and Alice let out a laugh.

She was glad that Titus was moving back towards who he used to be as if he was picking up the role. But at the same time, it wasn't the same. Things were different between them, and she could feel that there was still a bit of weariness from both of them whenever they interacted. The effortless banter that they had enjoyed for a couple of days was stilted now, but she had hopes that it would recover.

Ever since she had joked about getting a psychology textbook the next chance they got, Titus had put in an effort to be more open with her. Perhaps it was a forced openness because he didn't really have a choice, but they were working on it. If a few of the conversations were slightly awkward.

"You know," Alice said, "There's a chance I might be able to change my class."

Titus shrugged, but she felt a glimmer of hope in him. "It's still your best option. I wouldn't want you to have to give up power or safety just to make us more comfortable."

Alice couldn't help but agree, even if she didn't particularly like it. "Yeah, but it's just an option to keep open. To think about. Maybe."

Titus nodded. "If you can find something better, sure.B But otherwise..." he trailed off.

They didn't say anything more about that as they got back on the ATV. Still, Alice could feel a knot of tension slip away, leaving only a tangled mess behind rather than the tight ball that everything had been for the past day or so. They continued on at a slightly slower pace because dangers were more common, and a few times, they had been ambushed. It was best if they could hear better.

It did leave them a little space for conversation.

"So... why were you in America?" Alice asked.