After a short rest, I stocked up on a few more bottles of water and various snacks from the nearby mini-market. The sun would be falling in a few more hours, which gives me about an hour to scout the hospital then another one or two more to make my way back. As I'm not quite ready to camp out yet.
All set, I engage sneaking and slowly make my way across the street then into the hospital's parking lot. Taking in the sight as I hide inside the empty security post, nothing is moving or making any sound.
Let's just check the perimeter for now, then make my way back.
Almost an hour of sneaking around and the results are nothing, no hostile creatures, no corpses near the splashes of bloods, no signs of inhabitant besides the three available entrances -- big glass doors -- being barred by broken furniture all along its whole width, and the windows closest to the floor haphazardly boarded.
It's time to make my way back before night falls, I hope all that defenses set up means there are survivors in there. Better leave them for now and discuss further plans with the two back home, this might also concern them, assuming there are medical personnel among the survivors inside.
The way back was thankfully uneventful, not enough time has passed to allow more than several creatures to have repopulated the area after my recent hunt. Though I managed to snipe three Huge Mosquitos out of the skies and finish them off on the ground, and had also ran into a pair of Giant Rats feasting on several of my earlier kills. They all made a nice addition to the collection of dead pests on the road.
As the sun set, I came out of sneaking by the housing gate, a triumphant grin decorating my face…
They need a frickin bell!
"Where's your flail-tail monkey?" The nerd asked me. I had to knock on the gates to draw their attention, showing him two fingers for an answer. "Just open the gate already!"
"You need a frickin bell!" I tell them, now inside the safety of the walls. They both laugh, the nerves! "So how's the territory going?"
"It's going great, though we need more Creds to get the really good stuff. But there was some free stuff we got for being among the earliest territory owners. We've got a shield around the area now, it's still kinda weak, but much better than nothing!" Jennifer started to chatter excitedly. "As a territory we have several options to generate Creds, like selling products from our land or taxing our population, and many others. But all those seem pretty far away."
"I'm thinking about luring creatures into a killzone we've prepared to gather the creds," Henry adds to the conversation. "But I'm still figuring out if it's worth the risk."
Talk of Creds made me remember the spell I've managed to put on sale in the store. "One sec," I told them, zoning out to check the merchant interface.
238 sales! 8,330 Creds are available for me to claim. A wide grin once again decorates my face. "So how many Creds exactly do you guys need?"
They both turn to look at me. "Probably like hundreds of thousands ," Henry answered. My face fell, "whaat?"
"Not all together, at that amount the place would be like a luxury hotel. Unless more things show up." He clarified. "But for the immediate future, maybe about three thousand or so, though the more the better.".
He then gave me a list of things.
Rank 0 Territory Core, 5000 Creds.
Four spells; Produce Bread and Cheese, Conjure Water, Cleanse and Create Golem for a total of 330 Creds.
Rank 0 Mana spire, 1500 Creds.
B&B's Defensive traps and structures pack A - C, 1000 - 3000 Creds.
Shield upgrade, 500 Creds.
The list goes on, and on, and on.
"They always do, I muttered. What is a Territory Core and Mana Spire?" I asked after reading the first 15 or so before stopping. Someone took window shopping as a new hobby.
"Territory Core, this is more an assumption okay," Henry started his explanation. "Would give the territory owner an AI of sort that probably interfaces with their System, might make everything more efficient. The description also says something about a sharing feature for spells and skills, not sure how that works, but definitely needs checking out. Imagine a whole city worth of people shooting fireballs at invaders, or if everyone in the city can summon foods and drinks."
"Yeah, world hunger, solved!" That definitely sounds awesome. He looked at me with an are-you-stupid look, "what you said would require a territory that spans the whole world."
"Touché." I deflate, "so, start with solving it in one city?" He nodded. Both refusing to acknowledge that we're three people occupying the building of a boarding house. Let alone a city, we don't even count as a tiny village.
"So if you have like 8k Creds to spend, what would you get?" It would be nice to have a safe place to come back to, so I decided to invest in their territory. Something to start them out at least, who knows.
With a silly look on his face, "you have that much?" He's probably doing some math in his head, something like 8000 divided by 2.5 cred perkill equals 3200 kills, 3200 kills within the 6 hours I'm gone equals 533 kills per hour and it's killing his logic. I LOLed at his bewildered expression and decided to give him a few minutes to bathe in the mind blown, then proceed to tell him about creating Magico Disk and selling it in the store. His face lights up as this gives him another feasible way to gain Creds.
"Does this mean you're willing to spend the Creds from your sales on our territory?" He then asked me after several moments to think. I gave him my most professional smile. "Thank you for your trust, here at ZenBank we offer our loans at the low, low rate of 50% yearly interes…" I had to stop, his face doesn't look as funny as expected.
He's got this hurt look and seems to be about to start shouting at me.
"Oi, what's wrong with you?!" I said maybe a little too loud as Jen was beside him in mere moments. Placing her hands on his shoulder to calm him down, she asked me, "what happened?" So I told her the general idea.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
"He's just messing with you, as usual." I can hear her whisper to his ears, "I know you're worried, but the two of you always make weird jokes, this doesn't even make the top 100. As far as I can remember"
He looked at me and said, "sorry man. Let's continue this tomorrow." To which I tell him its fine, "If just being given the money bothers you, maybe I can buy something, my housing for example. I'm gonna need a safe place to rest anyway and here is the only safe place I know of so far."
They both left me for their room, Jennifer managed to whisper another sorry at me. Wonder what got into him.
I made a simple dinner and got comfortable on the usual couch. 'Updates, please'. I nudged The System.
** DING **
Slayed Huge Mosquito lv 3
3 Syscred and 36 exp rewarded
Slayed Huge Mosquito lv 3
3 Syscred and 36 exp rewarded
Skill level up, Sneaking 3 > 4
Slayed Huge Mosquito lv 3
3 Syscred and 36 exp rewarded
Slayed Giant Rat lv 2
2 Syscred and 16 exp rewarded
Slayed Giant Rat lv 2
2 Syscred and 16 exp rewarded
Alrighty, that's it for the updates. Now for another episode of spamming Inspect.
'Inspect,' X18. 'Thanks'.
** DING **
Spell Dilettante. Amateur by choice or measure. You've still managed to whip up a treasure. Key to power, fame or wealth the choice will be at your leisure. Here's a gift for your pleasure, a spell for a spell.
Please select a spell from the CredStore, maximum rank: Apprentice.
Pristine Peddler. Congratulations. You have something the system does not, share it, don't hoard it and you won't regret it when the Creds come along with it. Do check out your new interface at the store.
Visualization. Daydream better by seeing what you're thinking. You may create and edit an illusionary image invisible to everyone else, viewing it as a projection before your eyes.
Thrown Weapons Proficiency. Sometimes the fine line between walking away from the corpse of your enemy and lying in a pool of your own blood is that last unexpected steel right through the heart of one of you, from twenty meters away. Improves accuracy and throw distance for applicable weapons.
Dagger Proficiency. The blade on your hip. The blade under the sleeves. The blade coming out of your neck. Trust but beware, never leave home without it. Bonus to damage and weapon handling, slight bonus to keeping them out of sight.
Mana Sense. Your sixth sense, or seventh, or eighth. The user may trigger this skill to passively sense surrounding mana, higher Wisdom influences how far and precise your mana sense is. Limiting your other senses, and focusing on only mana would further boost its range.
Artificial Infusion. Craft your own magic scrolls but with or without the scrolls. Infuse a viable item with a spell, the spell is stored for later use. Triggering the spell consumes mana from the item, insufficient mana will instead consume durability. Maximum infuseable mana is limited by material size and mass.
Unsoil - Basic. Cantrip spell. 5 mp. Cheers to never being afraid of getting your hands dirty. Cleans stains from the target area, causing it to drop or float away. Target must be within range measured by Will, affected size influenced by the power of your magic. Spell also affects organic waste, fungi, and various other unpleasant substances.
Distill - Basic. Cantrip spell. 3 mp. The key to staying hydrated, except when there's no water. Kills microorganisms from water in a container on hand to make it safe for consumption. Amount affected per cast influenced by magic power. The spell may target specified microorganisms.
Light - Basic. Cantrip spell. 5 mp. If you're afraid of the dark, all we can do is keep them away. Create a floating sphere of immobile light about the brightness of a mundane torch. Duration affected by the caster's magic power. Luminosity may be intensified or reduced by modulating mana use.
Coat - Basic. Cantrip spell. 1 Mp per 1 cm². Momentarily make mundane matters more magical. Coats a mundane object with your mana to enhance one of its known properties for several minutes. You can feel which direction the item is in relation to you for the duration the spell is active.
Mend - Basic. Cantrip spell. 10 mp. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Repair small tears or breaks on mundane items through application of mana. Size limited by magical strength. Repaired areas are further reinforced, decreasing chance of recurrence.
Ignite - Basic. Cantrip spell. 3 mp. A gift for mankind, anonymous Titan. Causes small sparks to crackle from your fingers for several seconds. The sparks absorb ambient mana to last longer.
Soften - Basic. Cantrip spell. 15 mp per minutes. Bend and twist to your hearts' bliss. Slightly loosen the rigid surface of an object on your hand for as long as mana is provided, affected area limited by magical prowess. The spell can diffuse into an object, loosening their molecules and affecting the interior.
Wind Arrow - Basic. Apprentice spell. 15 mp. The winds hate taking shape, but love the rush then the taste of freedom. Manifest an arrow of wind to fire at a target. The arrow rotates to allow for better piercing.
Skill level up, Inspect 5 > 6
Conjure Flames - Basic. Apprentice spell. 20 mp. Fire blesses a home with warmth and life but left unattended it fades into ashes and destruction. Conjure a magical flame fueled by mana and ambient air at a specified point within several meters from caster, flame's breadth starts at 10 cm and increases the more mana spent, needing more the bigger the flame. The flame functions as how a flame should. Lasts several minutes influenced by your magic. At will, rather than increase breadth, mana may instead be utilized to increase its intensity.
Mold Earth - Early. Apprentice spell. 20 mp per cast. Incomplete spell, only available upto Basic mastery. The land you walk on to shape as you wish, imagination and magic your only limits. Maintain touch with the target earth to mold.
Magico Disk - Early. Apprentice spell. 10 mp. Incomplete spell, only available upto Early mastery. Create two circular saws, 3cm in diameter and 1mm thick, more discs may be summoned for half the cost each. The disks spin and fly at high speed in a straight line and slowly dissolves to ambient mana after impact, each disk may have different targets.
Conjure Dagger - Basic. Apprentice spell. 40 mp. Your very own personal knife, eloquently the dagger within. Conjures a dagger that is most familiar to the caster. The dagger causes slightly less damage than an actual dagger, but deals a slight bit of magical damage. The dagger fades after several minutes. The blade will maintain a keen edge, granting bonus damage.
Lesser Heal - Basic. Apprentice spell. 25 mp. Not that the heal is any less, rather only lesser wounds may be healed. Heals minor flesh wounds, minor muscle wounds.
Whew, might be better to Inspect them skills or spells as they come than procrastinate and end up with lots at once, like now, pretty sure I’m gonna forget some of them. Either way, the weapon skills are pretty straight forward and the other three skills sound very useful, will need further testing.
Visualization is gonna have to wait for my next crafting project. Artificial Infusion, I might be able to try soon, tonight. While Mana Sense will definitely be something for tomorrow.
The spells are what intrigue me most, everyone must have wished to use magic at some point in their life. I even managed to make a new one, though why the spell is incomplete is beyond my understanding. And a Free one too, not sure I want to spend it in an Apprentice rank one.
Cantrip or Apprentice spells probably mean the spells level, maybe the difference lies in a higher difficulty and destructiveness.
Should've inspected Earth Mold before buying it, incomplete?
Early mastery? Basic, mastery? Hmmm….
I woke up to the sound of cooking.
It's… morning? Nuoohh my time to experiment!
I sat there still in the midst of collecting pieces of my drifting souls and feeling regret for falling asleep. Henry approached pulling along one of his kitchen chair and sat before me.
"We need to talk". He said.