Name: Zane Fair Prayoga

Specification: Male. Human. Argead.

Level: 1 (20/1000)

Hp: 77 / 100

Mp: 270 / 270

Sp: 73 / 110

Str: 10

Con: 10

Dex: 10

Int: 12

Wis: 12

Wil: 12

Cha: 10

Ap: 1

Syscred: 3

Fp: 0

Titles: [Mind as old as Time], [Memories of Forever, Forever lost]

Traits: Adaptable, Metamorphosible Mana, Immortal Mind, Memory Vault

Skills:

Sneaking 2

Mace Proficiency 2

Inspect 4

Spells:

Poisoned: -2 hp / mins

Deep breathing really helped a lot. As I read my system screen, the fog clouding my mind clears up and the pain lessened to a bearable level.

"Wow, that was nasty! Thank you." I told henry. "It says here that I'm poisoned, eats two health per-mins."

"No worries, I wouldn't want you to die. Because I need to thank you for showing me live that hyperventilating, getting injured and poisoned—oh and also the lack of adrenaline; can and will induce shock on a human. I've only ever read that somewhere." Looking up at him, I see him grinning, that's as wide as his grin gets. I give him the finger, why the need for some stupid reason to save me?

"How much health do you have left?" The only normal person present asked me.

"Uhh, 77."

With a panicked look, "then we need to do something!" She looked at the bite holes on my arm and suggests. "Maybe we can suck the poison out?"

Thonk.

"Ouch!"

"You can't do that!" Henry bopped her head then pointed at her right between the eye. Used to their antics, I let them banter as my eyes focused on my traits, maybe…

But before that. 'Updates'.

DING.

Hit by Rat's rabid bite. -10 hp.

Status condition: poisoned. -2 hp/mins.

Skilled obtained Unarmed Combat Proficiency.

Skill level up, Mace Proficiency 2 > 3

2 Syscred and 16 exp awarded.

-2 hp

-2 hp

-2 hp

-2 hp

Status condition: shock.

-2 hp

-2 hp

Status healed: shock.

Skill obtained Meditation

- 1 hp

Nice! Meditation might help with my plan to stay alive.

- 2 hp

It ticked down again. A mental nudge closed the updates. 'I don't want to die', I announce to the only other consciousness around me that is not busy arguing; The System. No answer was offered.

"So," interrupted, the couple both stopped their affectionate debate to look at me. "I've got this trait that says my mana can be anything I want it to be. Wanna bounce ideas on how I can use that to stay alive?"

"No hurry, I probably have like 37 more minutes to live". I added with a grin.

"What do you mean it says what it can do?" Asked Jennifer, "All mine does is show my profile when I yell status. Something he taught me." She pointed to the other guy in the room.

I was about to explain how I got Inspect when Henry beat me to it. "I don't think he's talking about status or profile, Jen." He then looked at me and asked, "what exactly does it say? I assume this is some kind of appraisal skill".

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Nodding to affirm his assumption, my eyes once again wandered to my open profile, to the Trait. 'Inspect'.

"Mana has always been accommodating to change. Your mana, instead, is levels above and beyond that. They'll be the elements in the palm of your hands or the roof over your head and sometimes even the cold metalic death of your enemies. They are essentially the products of your design." I read out loud, word for word. Seeing a confused look on Jennifer's face, and a pondering one on Henry's face as he asks me "Can you even use your mana?"

"Not yet, you think for a while. I'm gonna give it a go as I meditate… Over there." Came my urgent reply, reminded of my situation, I absentmindedly pointed to the nearest couch. This is all still just empty planning if I can't utilize mana.

Getting comfortable on the sofa. I somehow have the notion that—from reading articles on the web and then coming to my own conclusion over time—meditation is, in part, about controlling your breathing. Which is probably how I got the skill in the first place... It took a few more shuffling before I felt comfortable enough to close my eyes.

After staring at the swirly colors in the darkness behind my eyelids for what felt like a quarter of an hour, whilst consciously regulating my breathing. The act eased my turbulent mind enough that, I slowly fall into a relaxed state, my breathing evened out to a natural rhythm.

After what felt like hours, yet could also be in the blink of the eye, my consciousness—to describe as closely as possible—wakes up. I'm suddenly very aware of the inner workings of my body, like how you always know where your hands are even when they're under the table. Viewing what is essentially the circulation of the inner energies and bodily matter that's keeping me alive before my sights. It is making me appreciate life more, my life especially. It's apparent we're in a kill or be kill world now and I refuse to be the one doing the dying.

My attention was drawn from the whole cycle onto my left arm, where something feels wrong, whatever it is does not belong here. Focusing on the area allows me to zoom in, giving me a closer look.

Something I am sure to be my veins are visualized as purple branching lines, and visible inside them are numerous black particles. Which is most likely the rat's poison. Also nearby, loosely parallel to the purple veins are what seems to be three other finer lines, each with their own hue of red, blue and yellow.

There seems to be a smaller flow moving out of the red line and assimilating into my purple veins, transforming themself into their own particles of red as they phase-in. These red particles started attacking and eating away at the black particles.

Are there less of the black particles?

Say, picture a ball pit, 5 equally different colored balls in the pit. One of the balls is black and another ball is red, the rest are various shades of light gray, that is roughly how many black and red dots there are—less of the blacks than the reds—compared to everything else. Now imagine the reds and the blacks are at war, but where the black is an army stuck within enemy territory, the reds are getting a constant influx of reinforcements. It won't be long now before the blacks are eliminated.

In a moment of clarity I focused on the black particles in general. 'Inspect'.

DING.

Rabies virus.

Awesome! That Inspect works not that I'm infected. Now at the red, blue and yellow lines. Pretty sure I can guess what they are but it won't hurt to be sure. 'Inspect' x3.

DING.

Health.

Mana.

Stamina.

Bullseye! Red is health, the blue equals mana and the good-ol yellow colored stamina. So cliché~.

I like it!

Incentivized by the situation, I took inspiration from the health at war with the virus and decided to get my mana involved, making it into a two vs one battle.

I started by trying to grab onto the mana with my hands, in which nothing at all happened—duh! 'This is at least molecular, I'm so stupid sometimes.' I say to whoever is listening to my inner dialogs.

This time, referencing the amalgamation of magic-esque knowledge I have from various incredible sources online and on paperback, I willed a sliver from the blue stream—in a rough copy of how and where the red stream moves while fighting the virus, though I only managed to mobilize half the intended number—to flow gently into my veins, I willed it to form into blue particle and wished for them to help fight the foreign matter.

The results were unmistakable as the virus was cleared out of my system within the moment. It was a massacre, probably too much mana.

DING.

The excitement about getting rid of the rat's poison by using magic snapped me out of meditation.

"—ed to wake him up, it's been twenty-plus minutes! He's only got like ten left!" Jen demanded.

"He's got time, it's common enough that meditation boosts resource regeneration." Henry told her, "and no, it wasn't an assumption. I have the Meditation Skill too."

"You do?!" Predictable; both Henry owning the staple Skill and Jennifer not having a clue.

"Yep, remember me sitting in my office with my eyes closed, same Skill." He clarified. "I was sure you'd come running, so staying put was the best option for the situation."

"I remembe—"

I failed to hold down a chuckle. They're made for each other. Opening my eyes, an involuntary grin spreads across my lips. The two of them had eyes focused on me.

"I guess you don't need our help anymore." Henry shrugged. "Honestly, you were overreacting, man. probably have 37 minutes to live!" He air quoted with a neutral face. His girlfriend smacked him on the head. I showed him the finger on my left hand works fone, even wiggled it around for him.

The couple got busy for a while trying to locate their first aid pack while doing their usual bickering as they each thought themself better than the other about how to treat and bandage a wound. "There all don—YESS!" Jen yelled making a yes pose. A glance at Henry, "gained First Aid," he answered my unasked question.

"Jen you're a badass with that katana!" I then said excitedly. "Where did you even get one?"

At the mention of her katana, her face glowed with pride. "It's was already in my hand when I woke up. But it's perfect! Exactly what I needed to safely find my nerd."

I ohh-ed. Kinda disappointing, I hope she did not purchase some mediocre katana in exchange for the Point; gears tend to fall behind as its user grows. "It's a soulbound growth weapon, you better know what that is." The nerd clarified. "And keep it a secret."

"It's soulbound!" I told him. Others cannot steal something like that.

"Most people won't know that!" He gave me an are-you-dumb look.

That's a good point. The amazing katana in question was getting hugged by its owner as she whispers, "Shugonohane, <3."

Leaving her to it. I turned to Henry, "you got anything special?"

It turned out he got some skill called ManaScript that allows him to make simple codes to influence mana, however that works. He won't tell, tsk!

What we did next was make some guesses about party EXP distribution. As both him and I got nothing from Jen's three kills, and we each got nothing from each other, except Jen got half—which is 8 exp and 1 syscred, outside of her 48 exp and 6 syscreds—of his in addition to her kills and he also only got half of his. Therefore, our initial guess is that whatever reward from a kill is divided equally among anyone who did any damage.

All three of us also agreed to stay put for the rest of the day, as it seems safe enough here for now and between the stuff we have in our pantries, enough food for a few days. Some time was spent moving useful items from my home on the 2nd floor down to theirs, as it was also unanimously agreed that sticking together is the better option. The whereabouts of our other neighbors is a mystery best left for tomorrow morning.

In our downtime, Henry went to surf the net for information about today—yes the internet still works, so does plumbing and electricity—while Jen went to do Jen things.

Now left to my own devices, I decided to experiment more with mana and magic and my traits.

But first, 'updates!'