“What do you mean, that was Mana Infusion!” A perplexed Frank replied, turning to face the confused Lizindra. “Sure it took 2 Mana instead of 1, but I used Mana Infusion, the system said so and everything.”
“Mana Infusion is one of the weakest Skills there is. There's a reason it only costs 1 Point. It adds a little, A LITTLE, bit of power to an item. People usually use it as a temporary stun. This is what mana infusion should do.” She said, and drew her sword.
Frank saw a feeble blue light flow down the blade. Barely more than a glimmer. She then poked Frank on the arm. He felt a shock, like a strong static discharge and his arm went numb.
“Hey! Be careful with that!” Frank called out as feeling slowly returned to his arm. She was right, that barely did anything to him, and his arm was back to normal after only a minute. Now he was just more confused than ever. The first time he had used Mana Infusion, the action that unlocked the Skill, had blown the Plagued Lurchers head off. Then he had made a welder, and now he had turned his spear into some sort of armour piercing explosive.
“What do you visualise when you use Mana Infusion?” He asked Lizindra. “The Skill says that the effect is changed by the power, intent and material.”
“No it doesn’t. It says ‘imbues an item with a weak mana charge. Will discharge on contact.’” The way she spoke and the slightly unfocused look in her eyes showed that she was reading from her invisible menu.
“Well mine doesn’t.” Frank replied. Frank was confused. Maybe it was because he had unlocked it by use rather than purchasing it from the Store? He wasn’t sure.
“We can figure it out later. Right now we need to dispose of the corpse before it attracts any Wanderers, or worse.” She declared, sheathing her sword and hauling the corpse up. The Mana flowing down her arms and legs spoke to some sort of Skill being used. “Go wait in the house, and see about rustling up something to eat. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Frank nodded and headed back inside thinking about the differences between his Skill and Lizindras. He rooted through some boxes and managed to come up with some bacon and bread. ‘Bacon sandwiches’ He decided. Pulling a frying pan hanging from the wall and putting it on the coals of the fire to warm up, he cut up the bread into decent slices as he waited. Rooting through some more boxes he found some button cup mushrooms and sliced them up. Once the pan was up to heat he placed the bacon and mushrooms in the pan to cook up. The sizzling of the bacon as it touched the pan was the only sound in the room for a while.
Just as the bacon and mushrooms were about done Lizindra returned and nodded in approval at the pleasant smell coming from the pan while washing up from a basin. “Smells good.” She said coming over to sit near Frank as he used a fork to scoop out some bacon and mushrooms onto the bread before finishing up his sandwiches. Handing his plate over he smiled.
“I always loved bacon and mushroom sandwiches growing up.” He said, taking a big bite from his. Lizindra just nodded as she ate hers. She seemed to be lost in thought.
“How much did Mana Infusion cost to purchase?” Lizindra spoke at last, brushing off the few crumbs that had fallen on her lap.
“It didn’t, I just sort of.. Got given it. The system said that since I had used the Skill without having it, it had given it to me.” Frank replied after a moment's thought. “Is that not normal?”
“No, not at all.” She seemed disturbed. “The system never gives Skills without spending Points. I’ve never heard of it.”
The two sat in silence for a moment, each lost in thought. Frank was wondering about the nature of the system. As far as he saw it there were two possibilities. Either the system was favouring him somehow, or the denizens of this place were so used to the system and common knowledge that they never tried anything out of the bounds of the system. He was reminded of cases in Earth's history where the commonly held belief was just counter to the reality, but no one pushed it and just accepted it as it was until some genius or madman went contrary. He remembered the convoluted and outright insane ‘remedies’ of Pliny the Elder and miasma theory.
“I think,..” Frank began, trying to find a delicate way to say it. “I think that maybe the system has some more nuance than mist people know?” He finished.
“Maybe. Are you able to learn any more Skills without purchasing them?”
“We could experiment?” He suggested. Lizindra nodded in reply.
Out in the street Lizindra and Frank stood together as she explained to him the Skill she was going to show him.
“This is called Blur Step. It's one of the lowest ranked Physical movement Skills and it’s honestly really handy in tricky situations.” She set herself in front of Frank in a combat stance sword drawn and instructed him to do the same with his spear. “Now thrust at me.”
Frank slowly stepped forward and started to jab forward with his spear. However just as he was about to make contact Lizindra blurred and was a foot closer, and to the side of his thrust with her sword resting against his neck. She smiled and lowered the blade.
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“You only get about a foot of distance, but as you saw that can make a huge difference at the right moment.” She explained as Frank tried to replay back the moment in his mind.
“I didn’t really see, can you show me without me having to ‘attack’ you? I wanna watch what happens closer.”
“Sure. Let me know when you’re ready,” She replies settling into a ready position,
For the next hour the two of them worked together trying to get Frank to learn Blur Step. He could see her Mana move through her body a pale blue. He even tried to mimic it himself. Trying to remember the feeling of pushing his Mana out, but instead through his body and trying to Blur Step.
The two of them were surprisingly exhausted after an hour. Surprisingly to Frank, Lizindra was well familiar with the light exhaustion of using skills repeatedly over a long time. She wasn't really worried about her Mana, she could regenerate the used Mana faster than she was spending it on Blur Step, in the cool-down time of the Skill. But the constant activation was tiring.
Frank however was out of Mana, covered in sweat and panting slightly from the exertion.
“Lets.. take.. A break.. “ Frank pants out between breaths as he wiped the sweat off his brow.
“Yea, sounds like a…” Before she finished her sentence she suddenly disappeared from his view.
Frank looked around as he heard the distinct THWANG of her bowstring behind him, what he saw made his mouth go dry and filled him with dread. On the other side of Lizindra, skittering around the corner was a group of arachnoid creatures. Each was the size his childhood pet Labrador, their faces were dominated by two primary eyes, and surrounding them were several smaller ancillary eyes. The tips of their feet glowed blue as they moved with shocking speed. Two of them seemed to focus on Frank and as their primary eyes glowed with the familiar look of Mana, this time orange in colour. Frank felt like their were insects crawling under his skin under their gaze, and a notification appeared in the upper corner of his vision just below his Mana count.
[You have been Appraised]
The rest of them disregarded Frank and turned their attention on Lizindra as a volley of blue Mana tinted arrows rained down on them. They scattered, most of them attempting to surround Lizindra with breathtaking speed. However one of them glowed in a similar way to Lizindra had during her attempt to teach Frank Blur Step, and it disappeared.
Frank felt a crawling up his spine, and instinct took over as he threw himself to the side where his spear rested. Not a moment too soon as the creature's brutal mandibles clacked closed right where his neck had been not even half a second ago. His hand clutched his spear and he lunged to the side again as the spider spun around and stabbed one of its horrifically sharp feet towards him.
He managed to get his spear up just in time so that combined with his lunge he managed to deflect the stabbing appendage. Behind him he could hear Lizindra's bow firing with incredible speed.
“Frank!” Lizindra called, and suddenly he felt himself yanked by some unseen force as Lizindra used a Skill on him. Suddenly he felt his back impact on the soft body of Lizindra and her hand grabbed his shoulder. The world went technicolor for a split second, it felt like he was on the psychedelic boat ride from Willy Wonka, and then the world reasserted itself. Stumbling as Lizindra dropped him he watched as Lizindra leapt into the air above him.
“Try to avoid them. They are Swarmers, they act as one. Be careful!” She shouted as her hands worked her bow and a flurry of multicoloured arrows flew forward impacting the ground where a moment before the group of Swarmers had been. She landed nimbly and quickly threw her bow over her shoulder and drew her sword with a determined look on her face.
Before he could take in more he heard skittering on the wall near him, and he realised she had deposited him on one of the barely intact roofs of one of the buildings nearly 40 feet from where he had been just a moment before, and his attention was once more dragged back to survival.
He risked a glance at his Mana and saw that he was dry, not a single drop. He grimaced and readied his spear again as he considered his options. This didn’t look good. These things were fast, incredibly fast. They could teleport, or move so fast in a burst that he couldn’t even see them. And if the cracking noise he had heard when the one of them had attempted to decapitate him was any indication they were also massively strong.
He glanced around and noticed that the roof that she had deposited him on wasn’t very secure. Lessons from college and years of practice about load balance, structural stresses, and material strength fluttered through his mind as he risked the 10 foot drop to the floor below.
Landing with a roll he heard the sound of the Swarmer on the remaining tiles of the rood he had just abandoned. He also heard the sound of metal ringing and chitin crunching from the over side of the wall. Lizindra had obviously engaged the Swarmers in melee in the street. Franks eyes scanned the scene in front of him and smiled gratefully as he saw what he hoped.
A large chunk of rock from the walls was lying right near the rotted out door frame leading outside, at his side one of the ceiling joists was precariously holding the roof in place. Even now it was quivering and sliding under the unfamiliar weight of the Swarmer above, emitting worrisome groans. He scrambled forward, shouting up above him.
“Come on you filthy spider.”
The moment he dashed forward the Swarmer landed with a ground shaking impact, and Frank was sure he felt something brush against his skin. He shrugged the phantom feeling off as he rolled forward, grabbing the chunk of rock and spinning around.
Turning to face the Swarmer he saw that it had just finished turning around too and had started to step forward. Hearing disgusting crunching sounds and a painful insectile scream from the nearby street the Swarmer in font of him paused just as Frank launched the rock with all his strength.
Everything around frank seemed to slow down. He saw the Swarmer finish its forward motion, the laws of inertia undeniable even in a fantasy world. He saw the rock tumble through the air. He saw the monster start twitching to the side, trying to dodge an attack that was never intended for it. Bringing it slightly closer to Frank, and even more under the precariously balanced roof.
Then everything crashed back into real time. The rock hit the joist beam, dislodging it from the tiny little crack in the tiling that had held it in place. With a scream of stressed wood the roof above collapsed down and crushed the Swarmer with a sickening wet crunch.
At the same moment from the street came another chorus of insectile screams. But less this time. Frank was too tired to notice. His vision was swimming, and a new notification popped up in his view even as the Swarmer still pitifully scrabbled on the ground trying with the last of its life to pull itself free.
[You have been poisoned]