CHAPTER 43 - Turning point I
POV - ???
It’s been a while since our hunts got us anything worth mentioning. Nonetheless, today we got quite a good catch, a deer, a mutated one.
The deer, being a tad bigger than the specimens from before the invasion, reaches about 2 meters and a half. Enough to help us push our scarce food storage away from the current worrying low level.
We are on our last legs and we need everything we can get our hands on, but this is not working. To catch any meaningful prey we need to use guns, guns of which we have a limited amount of ammunition.
We are already running low on rounds of pretty much everything aside from low-caliber guns like pistol bullets.
We need to come up with a solution, but it’s hard to do so when every makeshift weapon, bow, crossbow, or slingshot we have made so far is useless against the new stronger animals.
Once all our bullets run out we will need to look for smaller prey. Knowing the small group of people able to leave our hiding spot to go out and hunt for food, that approach is highly unlikely to last for long before we all die from hunger.
‘We are stuck in a race, either we get good enough weapons or we die, that's it.’
‘Why of all living beings there are, we are the only ones that adapt the worst to these conditions? There have already been a few days that I have been regretting my choices. All of this would be easier if we were just capable of getting stronger physiques or wielding a few of those powers like the animals.’
It hasn’t been that long since a group of beasts had a fight near our settlement, two packs of different wolf species.
We survived the ordeal, but there are still some people who have nightmares from all the loud rumbling of different elements crashing against the soil. Even I remember the loud tremors from the colliding ice and fire that went on for nearly an hour.
We only manage to take down the less mutated and weaker species with the help of our guns, there is no way we will be able to take on anything stronger with whatever we come up with.
That’s the reason why I am so surprised when I get back to base to find everyone surrounding a big chunk of meat, seemingly cut from a huge animal.
Our third squad of hunters slash scavengers, the smaller one and the weakest one out of the 3 of them, is the one surrounding it with proud smiles on their faces. The whole scene strikes me as something straight of a dream, making it all even more unreal and hard for me to accept.
The moment we get closer, Sara, the younger of the members from our third group comes to me with a smug expression on her face.
“We have far surpassed your best day leader, and with no injured people whatsoever!”
She tells me with her cheerful attitude. She does not leave me hanging though, knowing already that I am dying to know just how they were able to bring such a big piece when this whole time we have been together a few hares were the best they could get.
“You see, we found this huge corpse of a bear that had been charred to death recently, so we chose to try our luck.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah… I already know what you are thinking. Why would anyone leave all that meat wasted there, we thought so too at the time, so we combed the area for any signs of enemies.” She then takes a serious tone.
“Fair enough, there were a couple of those panthers with full body armor having their fill. We stayed for a while there, overlooking the beasts. We were waiting for both of them to get a full stomach and leave before rushing to get a piece and make a run with it when something unexpected happened.”
“Did you get spotted?” I ask, half doubting her claims.
“No, you already know we would be dead if they ever laid eyes on us, we are unable to outrun those things. Let me finish.”
“A young man came with a small fox in tow. They both walked around as if they owned the place as they got to the dead body of the bear.”
“We were going to warn him of the unknown threat from the panthers… but we knew it was too late, so we prepared to use his sacrifice as bait for us to make our move.”
I nod. I would have done the same, our world is now a harsh place, eat or be eaten.
“The thing is, both animals ambushed the pair, but were brutally killed.”
‘Huh?’ In shock, I ask her to go into detail.
“Are you telling me that a human was able to easily overpower two of those panthers? The same panthers that we saw tearing through steel more than once? You are not pulling my leg right?”
“The young man was incredible, that’s true, he cleaved one of the beasts in half, but that’s not the hard part to believe. The small fox used a lightning bolt to kill the other pather, killing it on the spot and leaving it in the same state as the dead bear.”
“Sara, are you implying…”
“Yes, they must be the same ones who took out the bear. A huge, humongous bear, in no way inferior to the one we saw that day. In fact, this one had to be even stronger.”
“No, there is no way.”
There is no way, how could such a young man exist. Unless…
“I talked with him María. We couldn’t possibly leave after witnessing that, and he even let us take the meat from the bear that you are seeing right there.”
“...”
“María, he was distant and cold, but he is definitely someone we can make a deal with. He is the one who can help us out with our plan. We just need to find what he wants in return for his help.”
“Huh, that is unexpected, but I already know how to get his attention.”
“You do?”
“Yes, Sara we will have a meeting tonight over dinner, don’t tell anyone about it for now. I got a plan that may work, but you won’t like it.”
----------------------------------------
Leo
‘Progress! Finally!’ After a lot of boring training, I finally got the best method for the scans I can currently perform.
I know it, cause I am seeing a pattern in all of them, and following that pattern, the method I last came up with is the best one that I can consistently use without passing out from the strain.
Now that I have a fairly efficient way to protect myself from sneak attacks and look for people as I roam around I will be focusing on something else.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
I could focus on a wide variety of things: developing new techniques, getting stronger with one of my powers, improving my already known movements like my qi blade that has become my trump card, or even go as far as to keep searching for a brand new power.
However, I choose otherwise. To be able to get better at anything or create new things, you need to stay alive. So I will try to look for ways to use my powers to improve my defenses, a good defense is the thing I currently lack the most.
The first thing that comes to mind is to craft some type of armor with some of the materials I get from my hunts, yet I would need a forge to do that for the most part. I am sure I could strip the hide from some of my prey and then make it into something resembling a coat or similar, but that would hardly count as creating something new.
Along those lines, I don't think that I have any talent for smithing either. I would need to give it a try to be sure, but I am 99% sure that I have no talent at all in anything that involves using a hammer to mold raw materials.
If that ends up being the case though, I will need to find someone reliable with good skills to do the smithing for me so that I can later work on the finished pieces.
‘Let’s look around for a few things that resemble weapons to work with. I need to know first if I am able to even improve anything at all with my qi or mana.’
I depart early in the morning to grab some clothes and weapons, which is easy enough, at least the clothing part. It should work in both weapons and “armor”, so I take it. Knowing full well that you can’t even call armor a bunch of random pieces made from plastic and cotton.
I cook some of the meat I brought with me from the bear to eat before I start working on the clothes. I would love to start the fire that I will be using to cook the meat with magic, but that is not something I can do, yet.
I am sure it is something possible, but for now, I am stuck with having to work with what I have around. Just like how I use magic to synchronize with the earth or the wind to do amazing things, I would need some kind of flame to start the process of lighting the fire with magic.
‘It’s okay, I will get there.’ I think as I eat fast alone to get to work. Bruma left a while ago on her own to go around and hunt or something, I am not sure, we are still unable to talk.
‘Let's see what we got…’ I spread the pile of clothes I brought on the ground.
‘Let’s start with this one.’
Taking a leather jacket, I start cycling my qi to condense it some more before sending it into the piece of clothing. After creating a small ball of qi, I inject it into the jacket with both hands to see what happens.
I don't even care to split it evenly or anything else, for the first time I just want to literally throw qi at it and see how it reacts.
I wasn’t expecting much, but I definitely was expecting nothing to happen at all. The qi just washes over the jacket for a second, but not finding anything to follow or any will to be subjected to, it dissipates soon after.
For my next try, I keep my focus on the cloth to assure myself that every bit of qi stays in place surrounding the jacket. My will maintains the energy in place, creating a coat of qi all around it just like when I use it on myself, just at a disgustingly inefficient low rate.
I scan the jacket, but after not finding anything of note apart from its improved resistance, I try to damage it with various methods such as stabs with shards of glass or friction against different surfaces. Only to discover that is just a boastful way of wasting qi to get far from
desired results.
After a few more tries with qi I end up knowing that it is impossible for my current control at least to do anything fruitful to the clothes, so I go on to test it with mana soon after.
Knowing that the elements that I will use the most while I don't come up with a way to create my own are earth and wind, I try with both.
I start with the earth one, and after a careful process, I manage to transform the mana from the surroundings and synchronize it with the soil before coating the jacket with it. At first, nothing happens, but a thin layer of stone starts appearing from thin air as I pour more mana.
My face lightens up and a small grin creeps into my face as I watch the protective layer of stone form around the designated target. The clothing, though, loses its external stone layer the moment I lose my hold on mana, making it clear that it works as a temporary thing.
I try again, with the same result, so I choose to try with the wind or air next. I repeat the process, and a small breeze comes to live around another piece of clothing that I choose. I try it out and notice a small improvement in my speed, but nothing much.
Sadly, the second I loosen my grip on the infused mana, the tiny tornado around me crumbles, leaving me with a disappointed expression.
‘Why is this happening? Why is my mana working while qi doesn't?’ It doesn't matter what I try with qi, I don't get any special results out of it other than a small increase in durability.
‘This shouldn’t be right. If mana works and qi doesn’t, why do both energies dissipate as I focus elsewhere? Shouldn’t it at least stay put if it isn’t fueling anything?’ For a long while, I wait in silence, contemplating the many possibilities that come to mind.
‘Wait, what if?’
‘...’ I repeat the same process, but this time using myself as a target instead of the clothing.
The mana that I force with my will keeps dissipating the second I let go, yet, the qi stays. It doesn't matter if I just strengthen my body with qi, if I move it around, or even if I just collect it into a ball. The qi stays around as long as it stays inside me.
‘That’s it! Qi comes from me too, so it is not averse to staying inside me on its own. Mana, in comparison, is defiantly averse to staying inside my body, so it forces its way out or dissipates while trying to do so while creating a big amount of strain on my body in the process.’ That would make sense, I need to get my hands on something that at some point contained mana while alive like that bear from before. If the mana I send inside their body stays after letting it free, it means my theory is right.
‘What about mana in its purest form?’
Unable to contain myself, I take a shirt from the pile of clothes spread on the floor and try infusing it with the mana I collect from the surroundings before making the transition to any element.
I let it all flood the shirt as I watch.
“Huh!?” I jump in surprise as I see the mana corrode the cloth as it floods it, turning it all into a pile of ashes.
‘It makes sense that it doesn’t work just like with the other types of mana, but why the corroding effect? Maybe it is too much strain for an item that has never been touched by mana?’ I am left confused as to why it happens, but I have no way of knowing as of now, so I just go on to the next thing that comes to mind.
‘Qi stays, but with little to no effect. Mana before the assigning of an element disintegrates it, and mana from one single element works as a temporary boost.’
Following the strategy of trial and error, I choose to perform one last test with the last combination possible for me at the moment. I do not have the best control over it, but I am able to slightly use qi and mana in unison, just in tiny amounts.
I would love to try imbuing something with two different affinities like earth and wind, but I am far too inexperienced to be able to do that, so I instead opt for this approach.
I take one last piece of clothing from the pile, this time another jacket. I don’t know why, but I am more inclined to use jackets than trousers, no idea why.
I collect the nearby mana again with the same forceful method as always and create a small ball of it with it. I then pool together some qi into a ball of qi of similar power.
The one made up of mana is a lot harder to keep under control and takes the best out of me to keep it under control while maintaining the qi flowing, so I hurry.
I end up with two spheres of energy, both exuding a great deal of power from my perspective as they float, one around my body and another one inside myself.
I force the mana ball to stay in place in front of me and I watch as a small transparent dot floats centimeters apart from my chest, staying inside my makeshift barrier so that I stay in control. Then I do the same with the other one, but the process goes smoothly.
The qi that makes up the entirety of the second sphere is stable and listens perfectly to my will. There is no need to force it to move as it leaves my body and takes a spot near the other transparent sphere. It takes a yellowish hue that stands out in comparison to the colorless mana one.
Lost in its beauty, I am brought back to reality due to the pressure that comes from keeping both spheres in place in a stable state. I even notice both of them losing their shapes and power over time, especially the colorful one. I can see how it is slowly dimming, so I start with the final task.
I can feel the worst headache I have ever experienced as I try to merge both energies. In fact, it is so hard to withstand that I lose focus, and with it my hold over both energies.
I am about to try and force both spheres under my control again when I see them pull one onto another, creating an enormous pressure that weighs me down and makes me feel like I am drawing underwater, deeper into the ocean.
Shock appears on my face as I notice my control sliping.
The last thing I remember is putting my all into reinforcing my body and forcing a qi shield in front of me into existence before an explosion knocks the air out of my lungs as my body flies out of the third floor I was staying through the wall.
*Rumbleee*