Eyes focused on the Macaque. My hand automatically follow the familiar gesture of lifting up, palms facing upward, mana flowing out into a sphere above it.
"A mana-infused solution for a mana-infused problem." The thoughts came out of my mouth unbidden. At the periphery of my vision, Henry raised his arms, once again, it seems we're in agreement.
Fire is out, no destroying the housing. Earth and water are too obvious visually. So, wind it is. It took me a moment to brainstorm about how I think wind magic should be. Wind is always portrayed as free willed, fun and fast. Invisible.
The sphere of mana began to spin at my command, inviting the surrounding air to join its dance. Compressing and spinning, faster.
A staple spell comes to mind.
I shape the mana into a triangle head that rotates into a sharp point forward, and funnels the excess backwards, creating a shaft that spreads a little into fletchings, this causes a strong backwards push.
Aiming at the primate's torso, I let go. Wind Arrow.
** DING **
A barely visible arrow of mana spins forward at my target, a keen eye would notice the shimmering green swirls of air and mana. Keen eyes the macaque has not, drowning in its own anger.
Not having ever practiced using the spell, or any spell for that matter. My aim was less than ideal, the arrow grazed one of the gate's bars getting nudged slightly off course. Before drilling into the primate's stomach in an outward angle, piercing through it. From below its right breast out through its sides. Leaving a gaping wound.
Even the thought of casting my first offensive spell did nothing to lift my spirits. I had to remind myself, It's us or the macaque.
A bolt of bright yellow energy flashed at it from beside me. Did Henry use light? That's pretty cool! By luck or skill, the spell pierced the primate through in between the bars, somewhere below its collarbone. Though too far to see how deep, a slight char is visible.
Between the two spells injuring it, the primate lost power in its legs, falling back with a primal screech. Jennifer embraced the opportunity to approach running and wrench open the gate, then took a stab at the downed creature's neck.
It's us or them.
** DING **
'Feels like there's been a lot of wrenching-open since this all started', I spoke internally, partly to take my mind off some stuff. A faint chuckle echoes in my head.
'Who?' … Silence.
Looking up to see our vanguard in the midst of pulling her katana out of the corpse was when it dawned on me. Turning to Henry. "You inspected that thing right? I forgot."
"The result came in as Flail-tailed Macaque, level 4." He told me. Then asked back, even as his eyes followed the girlfriend as she cleans the sword and returns. "How many exp and syscreds did you get?"
"Hmm." 'Updates'.
** DING **
Apprentice spell learnt Wind Arrow
Spell rank up, Wind Arrow Early > Basic
Your party defeated a Flail-tailed Macaque
1 syscred and 21 exp awarded
Awesome. "Got 1 cred and 21 exp, you?"
"Same," he replied as Jennifer came back. He repeated the same question to her. "Ah, 2 creds and 22 exp. Why? What did you guys get?" She fired back. In which the nerd decided to answer and do lots of math, then telling us his educated guess. Something like, how much Exp and Creds awarded need more reference, but rewards for kills are rounded down even distribution, leftovers go to the last hitter. I zoned out thinking what to do about the gates.
"What should we do about the gate and that corpse?" I asked them. "Maybe there's a loot system"
That got someone's attention. Eh, both someone. I suppose Jennifer does play games with us too.
Right away, Henry was on his way to try looting, his girlfriend following close behind. So I leave them to it and approach the gate, to get a close up view as I brainstorm how to reinforce our first line of defense.
I wonder what's stronger than steel. I took out my smartphone, glad that technology works as usual. The search shows several results, but nothing that clearly trumps steel in strength. Titanium or Chromium maybe, but I'm not too familiar with them. Maybe I can buy some example metal, a certain store comes to mind, foundational skill was it. An Inspect on Syscred later. 'Credstore'.
** DING **
Oh boy did that store have things. It's a simple list interface with columns for various entries. For example; name, price, description, producer, and category which looks like tags for a search bar at the top most, all thought controlled. You could get cheaper things from food and water to named soulbound weapons that could eat your enemies souls, I saw a live armor that would regenerate from damage. Only the price stopped me from getting anything good. Using the Creds for food or mundane things seems a waste for now, and the good magical stuff are currently beyond my means.
"No looting system," Henry told me. "But let's burn it just in case." So we lifted the corpse up further along the road and left it on the concrete. If we're gonna burn it, better there where it can't spread.
"You checked the Credstore yet?" I asked him in passing as we carried the corpse. earning me a no.
It then becomes a competition of burning it with magic. Achieved by causing the mana to vibrate excitedly, thus burning itself and the oxygen in the air. He won for doing it first, but we both got the apprentice spell Conjure Flames. Eh, how about the cantrip Ignite?
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
The thoughts of hunting to level up crossed my mind as we trudge back inside. But first to prepare, no more sleep for me this morning.
The day was then spent productively.
Getting used to manipulating mana, I managed to figure out Unsoil and Distill easy enough. All they do is target different microorganisms from Disinfect, microorganisms which I now know of from an internet search, probably gonna forget them soon.
Peeking at the log, I got a new title sometime between figuring out the spells. Budding Apprentice, it even gave me a new skill, Mana Sense. Awesome!
Light was next, all it does is have the mana consume itself to shine. I guess it is magic, doesn't really need to make too much sense. That makes 5 spells known, but only four out of the 8 basic spells. Lets see; Ignite, Mend, Soften, Coat.
Those are weird spell names.
Coat turned out to be pretty obvious, the spell reared itself when I managed to, well, coat the spoon on my hand at lunch. Jen was talking about coating things in egg and flour before frying. Not sure what the spell does, yet, besides wrapping things in mana.
Then, taking inspiration from D&D. I tried to patch together a tiny rip on one of the couches, by covering said rip in some mana and willed-pulled it to fuse the material. That gave me Mend.
It was hours past lunch when it dawned on me. The spell is called Ignite, nothing about flames. It's probably supposed to make things burn, not be the fire. That's what conjure flame is for. That got me outside experimenting with dry charcoals on the BBQ spit, leftovers from our occasional barbeque nights on the weekend. That got me the spell.
Soften was the hardest for me. It just doesn't click, what would need to be softened. A material is soft or it's not. Dinner was steak with potatoes and salad. Hmm, boiled potatoes, soft. Raw potatoes, not soft. It changes from getting boiled.
Still feeling a little hungry, I made toast on the Air Fryer. But, I went and forgot all about it, the stale toast was only found later on when I opened the thing up to make toasted bread because I'm still hungry. This brain needs a restart.
Oh boy that stale bread was hard, the crisp crust cooled into tough leathery jaw-ache. Then, it clicked, Soften to the rescue! An internet search later, I tried infusing my mana into the bread – Mana Sense helps with this – then have it loosen up the molecules. Lol, mana lubricant. It worked! Sadly the cold bread still sucks, this time from being all gooey.
** DING **
Alright system, you've been dinging all day. 'Updates,' all of them from since after the battle today'. Another ding chimed.
Apprentice spell learnt Conjure Flames
Spell rank up, Conjure Flames Early > Basic
Cantrip spell learnt Unsoil
Spell rank up, Unsoil Early > Basic
Cantrip spell learnt Distill
Spell rank up, Distill Early > Basic
Title gained Budding Apprentice
Title lost Lucky Mana User
Skill obtained Mana Sense
Cantrip spell learnt Light
Spell rank up, Light Early > Basic
Cantrip spell learnt Coat
Spell rank up, Coat Early > Basic
Cantrip spell learnt Mend
Spell rank up, Mend Early > Basic
Cantrip spell learnt Ignite
Spell rank up, Ignite Early > Basic
Cantrip spell learnt Soften
Spell rank up, Soften Early > Basic
Skill level up, Mana Manipulation 5 > 6
Title gained Prodigy Mage
Title lost Budding Apprentice
Skill obtained Artificial Infusion
Pretty obvious now that spells learned autodidact comes at the second comprehension level. Is that as a reward or because that's how well you end up knowing about the spell by learning it yourself.
While I check my updates, Henry came to sit near me.
"You've been at it all day, gained something from all that dedication?" His expression is serious. "It kinda crossed my mind that we're too safe. It's too quiet these few days. Where is everyone? We checked the other doors, all empty. Some are even left unlocked."
"Gains are amazing." I told him about the new spells and titles and he conceded defeat. I felt nothing, an empty victory. "Do you have any assumption for why it's so empty?"
"Yeah, there was an evacuation notice early at the beginning of the apocalypse. I ignored it in favor of waiting for Jen, then we were focused on escaping the rats." He explained, "most of the city might be bunkered out somewhere with the government and officials. Why are you out here?"
"I… probably, woke up late."
His stares are awkward.
"What! You never woke up late?" I added in defense.
He shrugged. "While you've been here doing your magic, Jen and I talked. We've decided to fortify the area. Make it a safe place for us and anyone who manages to find us. It seems that Jennifer managed to gain ownership of this whole housing, the old owner had died, if the system prompt was to be trusted.
She shared the ownership with him, so they co-own the place.
As land owners, they unlocked more options in their interface called a territory. Building upgrades, repairs, defenses, population and various territorial stuff. They repaired the gates through the new interface, and got experience for it. So they plan on playing the long game. Build up the territory, stay safe and grow together. Them and their land.
He seemed to hesitate, but finally asked, "what are your plans?"
We talked further. I told him how I wanted to grow stronger, an overpowered MC. It was such a childish thought, but who knows, there's a whole new multiverse out there. His reaction after hearing about my Immortal Mind title was hilarious, we're both sure that is why I won our bet.
We talked further about spells and builds and assumptions like we have for all video games we've played. Also about the Pioneers of Magic title, my spell options just disappeared, shame. Our game – now real life – talk went on till midnight.
"So this means you'll be leaving?" He finally asked.
"Yeah."
"I would go with you, but it's too dangerous. Jennifer needs a safe place before she starts growing, slow and bulky." He said.
Does that mean what I think it means?
"We were gonna get married in a few months, you know. Before her buldge starts showing" He dropped the bomb.
I smacked his arm. "Congrats! Should she even be doing all those exercises?"
"She said it's fine, they're mostly light exercises anyways." He shrugs again, "I'm also worried by the state things are in now, hospitals are probably closed."
Damn he's right.
"Tell you what, give me a few days to prepare and I'm gonna go out there to level. Might get to meet others, so if anyone agrees, I'll send them your way. Might even escort them here myself. There's gotta be some doctor or nurse out there right, there's a hospital nearby, maybe they'll help. Many birds with one stone!" I said, "and maybe try to check the CredStore."
"I don't like the idea of you traveling all alone, but that seems to be our best option right now. Jen's currently my number one priority." He said, smart guy. It took a while more to make plans for my eventual journey, before we broke off for sleep.
Not that I can sleep.
Since my magic seems to be more reliable, thanks to the titles. I finally placed my free Ap in Intelligence. Now as discussed, I need spells that would cover shelter, sustenance, directions and more options for offense.
Plenty of reference for that.