“Wraatcha doin.” Looking around frantically I can't find the source of the scratchy croaking voice.
“Ru-up ere human.”
Looking around at the trees all I can find is a raven.
“Where are you?” I say looking around a bit less frantically.
Then it hits me, the voice said human as if it wasn't one. Meaning either this is the world's best executed prank or the raven is speaking to me. I know I thought that it wouldn't be primates, but it still comes as a shock for a raven to know what it's saying.
“Are you the raven?”
“Yes, strupid human.”
“You asked what I was doing, and I have heard your kind like to trade. So tell me what you are doing here and I will tell you what I am doing here.”
“Wr-I noticed you using magic so I perched here to watch.”
“Not really using, more like experimenting.”
I chatted with the raven, which I learned was called darkness-that-sneaks-through-sky, a name I found quite appropriate, for about half an hour
Hnnn, hnnn
And there is my alarm to make sure that I am ready to pick up my daughter. Whelp time to go.
An hour later, at the school
"What do you mean Rosa’s not here?"
The school principal was the one to inform me "Because, she was caught using the system."
"What, when, how?"
"I am not at liberty to discuss."
.
.
.
"Heh heh... I guess those two were right."
"I'll be taking my leave now." I say
55 minutes later
So then life truly is meaningless without the requisite power to keep what is important to you and the only reasonable course of action in this unfair world is to make it unfair to your advantage.
That night, at the prison (graveyard shift)
“Hey are the comms down in this wing as well.” I see a technician talking to the bodyguard of my boss, the head chef and while his official title is “cafeteria manager” I prefer the term head chef.
“Yes”
In the meantime it’s time for me to check out.
“So what are your plans after work Walter?” a tomboy colleague, Sam, asks me
“sleep.”
Then suddenly the sirens blare, once.
.
.
.
I hear howling, and what sounds like children laughing and screaming, and then a thing opens the cafeteria door. It is about 3 feet 2 inches tall, has emerald green skin, one inch claws and four spindly limbs attached to a bulbous body. It's teeth in it's infant-like head shaped like push knives.
I freeze in fear, I had expected to fight humans not, not goblins.
While I am still frozen in fear it attacks and kills the equally surprised technician and three more come through the door
It rushes us, snapping me out of my stupor. I then cast my earth wall in front of it. It slams into my earth wall, I hear the clattering of claws on tile. Then nothing, before I see the goblin run around the side of the wall, hurrying I cast my dark blast spell, and miss, creating a 12ft diameter sphere of darkness for half a second, then it gets into my sense mana range I notice that it’s mana is static and all in one place.
Ding!
Your sense mana skill has leveled up
Exp: 200/300
before I know it the goblin is upon us. Then, as if it were a daily occurrence for her, Sam takes the short chef's knife she always seems to have on him, dodges a clumsy swipe from the goblin, and plunges the knife right into one of its eyes, pulls it back out, then walks over to me like nothing happened
“What, how.”
“I got rogue” she replies as if it explains everything.
And quite frankly it did, at least for me.
Then we each hear a gurgling noise from what we had taken for a corpse. Before Sam even turns back around I cast my dark blast spell, finally getting the timing right, and hit. The corpse shrivels and starts rotting before the decomposition slows, then stops.
Ding!
Congratulations: you have killed a lesser goblin lvl.2.
You have gained 30 exp.
As you are of a higher level than your kill your exp has been reduced by 70%.
Exp: 230/300
“Did you get a message?” I ask
“Yes, it reads: congratulations, colon, you have helped to kill a lesser goblin lvl. 2, period, Enter, you have gained 100 exp, enter, as you are of a level lower than your kill your exp has been doubled. enter, enter, congratulations, colon, you have leveled up.”
“Mine reads: Congratulations: you have killed a lesser goblin lvl.2.
You have gained 30 exp.
As you are of a higher level than your kill your exp has been reduced by 70%.”
“So, tell me, how are you so familiar with this system?”
“I could ask you the same thing, but I play a lot of RPGs.”
“Well… for me, I read a lot of webnovels. Also, what's your class?”
“Well I'm a mage”
“Got any good spells?”
“Only the two you have seen so far”
“Status.”
I roll my eyes. “You know that you can just think status, right.”
“Status”
Name: Walter
Exp: 230/300
Lvl: 3
Class: archmage
Skills:
Sense mana [lvl.5]
Mana manipulation [lvl.3]
Health: 90/90
Stamina: 92/92
Mana: 70/120
Attributes:
Vig: 9
Str: 8
Dex: 10
End: 10
Wis: 12
Wil: 12
Inte: 12
Intu: 12
Free attribute points: 16
“No I didn't, thanks”
I decide that now is probably the best time to distribute my free attribute points.
Name: Walter
Exp: 230/300
Lvl: 3
Class: archmage
Skills:
Sense mana [lvl.5]
Mana manipulation [lvl.3]
Health: 130/130
Stamina: 102/102
Mana: 135/150
Attributes:
Vig: 13
Str: 8
Dex: 10
End: 10
Wis: 15
Wil: 15
Inte: 15
Intu: 15
Free attribute points: 0
“Now for the loot, would you pass that knife over here for a sec?” I say
“Sure.”
And with that I plunge the knife into the center of the corps’s torso and retrieve the mana core that I knew was stored there.
Sam facepalms. “Of course, I have to treat this like a webnovel dungeon.”
“The only question is which web novel”
“Whelp, let's get a move on, knowing fantasy tropes this place is probably infested“ I say
“Agreed”
When we open the door we are greeted by sheer and utter chaos. The goblins are killing the guards, their tasers, stun guns, and the occasional pepper spray useless, while their batons had little effect aside from giving the goblins a chance to ‘die’, wait for a guard to turn their back, then proceed to jump on said back, which invariably led to the death of the guard. On the other hand the prisoners were slaughtering the goblins with their use of skills and teamwork, each one in a unit of four to six, probably their cell mates and or lunch friends.
One group of three, seeing that two of the people who normally serve breakfast had managed to survive, called us over
“Hey, Come join us, we could use the help.” One of the men, Tony, said.
The other two are zach and drey, the three are, well more likely were, serving five year compound sentences for multiple instances of theft. All three were notorious tricksters here, so much so that it's commonly said that they spend more time in solitary than anywhere else. From their own accounts they did so mostly to each other and primarily for entertainment. I was even the but of one of their jokes once, it was only an hour later that I noticed one of my shoulders was covered in the mashed potatoes which I thought that I had deposited safely on Drey’s tray had wound up on my shoulder. While they are obnoxious, their pranks are mostly harmless.
I decided it was better to move in a group as opposed to on my own in the middle of what was allegedly a dungeon, so agreed to join them.
“Alright, I'll join you.”
“Skills?” Drey asked
“Sense mana and mana manipulation”
“So a mage eh, get in the center” Zach says
“I'll join too.” I hear Sam say next to me
“Skills?” From Zach again.
“Dodging, precise strike, knife skills.” she replies
“Level?” Tony asked
“Why”
“Because one of us is going in back.”
“Two”
“Alright you go in back until we get out of here.”
Apparently Tony is a rogue, as in the class, not the archetype, Zach has the starting skill brawler, and Dray has the starting spell basic heal, which lets him chunk heal someone, albeit he wasn’t entirely sure how much mana to put in the spell for the most efficient use.
And so it’s decided, our formation is Tony, front right, Zach, front left, Sam, rearguard, me and drey, center of the triangle.
Formation freshly set, we see a group of six goblins approaching our direction, I use the dark blast spell and manage to pluck off 4, but am surprised at my own power as the diameter of my spell is bigger than it was the last time I used it by about three feet.
Ding!
Congratulations: you have killed a lesser goblin lvl.2.
You have gained 30 exp.
As you are of a higher level than your kill your exp has been reduced by 70%.
Ding!
Congratulations: you have killed a lesser goblin lvl.2.
You have gained 30 exp.
As you are of a higher level than your kill your exp has been reduced by 70%.
Ding!
Congratulations: you have killed a lesser goblin lvl.2.
You have gained 30 exp.
As you are of a higher level than your kill your exp has been reduced by 70%.
Ding!
Congratulations: you have killed a lesser goblin lvl.1.
You have gained 5 exp.
As you are of a higher level than your kill your exp has been drastically reduced.
Ding!
You have leveled up
Exp: 125/500
The goblins reached us before I could cast another dark blast, however as I had killed four of them, the frontline fighters weren't outnumbered. The goblin on the right engaged Tony before it reached us by tearing a tooth out and then throwing it with expert precision, or just dumb luck, catching Tony off guard. But tony wasn’t the one in danger for as the tooth careened through the air it sliced open drey’s throat.
Ding!
Party interface activated
Ding!
Party member Drey: -90Hp,
Status effects: heavy bleeding: -10Hp/s
.
Ding!
Party member Drey has died
Apparently it was dumb luck as the goblin is also surprised, or at least I think it is.
After the initial shock fades Tony rushes forward, breaking formation. Meanwhile the second goblin engages Zach, who goes for a lunge but misses as the goblin dodges, the goblin swings immediately after it’s dodge, and comes up short. Tony, at about this time, reaches his target, swings, and is blocked by the goblin’s claws, which shred his left fist.
Ding!
Party member Tony: -15Hp
Zach then swings, this time hitting, the almost-sickening crunch of bone being heard.
Ding!
You are in a party with someone who has killed a lesser goblin lvl.3.
You have received 30 exp.
As you did not help kill the [lesser goblin lvl.3] your exp has been reduced by 70%
Exp: 135/500
Tony tries an uppercut, the goblin backsteps, then slices open Tony’s right arm. Seeing that Tony is losing badly I prepare earth walls around the goblin in a square shape. The next time that Tony swings I notice that the goblin’s feet are set for a sidestep to its right. I raise the earth wall mid sidestep, and the goblin promptly bashes into the wall, stunning it.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Ding!
Your mana manipulation has leveled up
Exp: 215/500
While Tony’s initial attack missed, the goblin was stunned long enough that his follow up hit, prompting the goblin to play dead. However we had all seen that trick before and so Tony beat on its body until we got the system message.
Ding!
You are in a party with someone who has killed a lesser goblin lvl.4.
You have received 100 exp.
As you are of a lower level than the kill your exp has been doubled.
As you did not help kill the [lesser goblin lvl.4] your exp has been reduced.
Exp: 355/500
We then collectively decide to duck into a side room to collect ourselves.
“Status”
Name: Walter
Exp: 355/500
Lvl: 4
Class: archmage
Skills:
Sense mana [lvl.5]
Mana manipulation [lvl.5]
Health: 130/130
Stamina: 102/102
Mana: 125/150
Attributes:
Vig: 13
Str: 8
Dex: 10
End: 10
Wis: 15
Wil: 15
Inte: 15
Intu: 15
Free attribute points: 8
Name: Walter
Exp: 355/500
Lvl: 4
Class: archmage
Skills:
Sense mana [lvl.5]
Mana manipulation [lvl.5]
Health: 130/130
Stamina: 102/102
Mana: 145/170
Attributes:
Vig: 13
Str: 8
Dex: 10
End: 10
Wis: 17
Wil: 17
Inte: 17
Intu: 17
Free attribute points: 0
While I was allocating my stat points I noticed what I believe to be a notification, but first:
“Help: system”
System: a means by which to gain power through experience. It's that simple.
Well that didn't work.
“Help: party”
Party: the party system is designed to better allow communication among teammates. It can be activated by saying or thinking “form party” while in a group of four to six people, to add a party member simply say or think “add (insert name) to party”.
Let's try a bit more.
“Help: party system designation”
Party system designation: the party system is designated as: system/component/party.
“Help: system/component”
System/component is not in the help function.
Recommend alternatives: system, component, system component.
“Help: system component”
System component: there are many components to the system, the most useful ones among the ones that you have access to are cataloged, would you like to view them.
“Yes”
Useful system components:
Heads up display: the heads up display, or HUD, is a mechanism that allows one to see their health, stamina, mana, and status effects without having to pull up anything. To activate the HUD simply say or think “activate hud”.
Techniques: Techniques are abilities mastered through practice and innovation, all other information is blocked.
Status page configuration:
Laws of mana:
Opposing forms of mana attract
When opposing forms of mana meet they turn into their respective material or energy
Forms of mana separated by exactly one other type of primary mana repel with exactly 19/44 of the force that opposing mana will attract
When mana of types that repel each other collide they split each other apart
When mana of the same element collides it fuses
Forms of mana take to mana aspects of their repelling mana types best
Mana retains its shape and velocity when it is converted into matter or energy
Notes: mana is a field, an energy, and a particle, materials slowly output their respective form of mana, magic materials are the only materials that can interact directly with mana.
Mana aspects: Aspects are formed when a sentient creature wills an elemental mana to transform into it’s corresponding aspect
Primary Mana aspects:
Void (darkness): void aspected mana forms nothing when meeting it's opposite
Condense (water): makes the aspected mana denser by the amount of the aspect over the amount of mana
Fluid (air): aspected mana alters velocity and splits easier by mana over aspect%
Preservation (light): mana over aspect% less of the aspected mana disappears when meeting its opposite
Expand (fire): makes the aspected mana less dense by the amount of the aspect over the amount of the mana
Stasis (earth): the velocity of the aspected mana is harder to change and the mana is harder to split by mana over aspect%
Notes: materials that output the mana of an aspect’s type will follow the aspect, in shape and momentum.
Ding!
Congratulations: you have earned a title:
arcane saint: as you are the first person in the world to fully understand the laws of mana you have earned this title. Now your mental stats have 50% extra effect and your magic related skills level 1% faster per level. It will also be far easier for you to create magic related techniques.
Notes: like all saint titles this title will be automatically passed down to your best student upon your death. In the event that you have no students at your time of passing this title will be passed down to the next in line to qualify for it (ie. the person that would have gotten it if you didn't exist). If someone else who would qualify for this title kills you the title will automatically be passed down to them.
Do you wish to display this title right now?
“No”
Ding!
Congratulations: you have earned a title:
progenitor of saints: as the first saint you and all your party members with saint titles will have the effects of their saint titles doubled.
Well I wasn't expecting that. Now time to check the system notification.
Hello again.
You shouldn't tempt fate like that. As she decided, and I agreed, to punish you for your insistence to disrupt the progress of others using your authority.
As such every country that has banned or outlawed the system in any way has had all of their electronic security systems shut down permanently and their places of security turned into dungeons.
The countries that have not abused their power are as follows: South Korea, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Sweden.
So long and farewell.
Well, I guess that explains our current predicament.
Ding!
World event: genesis of the saints:
Someone has ascended to sainthood. Follow their lead and reap great benefits.
Ding!
Your title [progenitor of saints] has been auto-equipped
You may no longer unequip the title [progenitor of saints]
Well shit. I was hoping to avoid drawing attention, but given that system message and my forcibly equipped title, that ship has sailed.
I suddenly notice three pairs of eyes on me.
“How did you become a saint?” Sam asks what must be on the minds of the other two.
“I looked through the system using the help function. Aside from that I'm not entirely sure. That aside, how do titles display?”
“It doesn't really, I just kind of get a sense of the words when I look at you, it's a bit disconcerting.”
"Status"
Name: Walter
Exp: 355/500
Lvl: 4
Class: archmage
Titles:
Progenitor of saints (equipped)
Arcane saint
Skills:
Sense mana [lvl.5]
Mana manipulation [lvl.5]
Health: 130/130
Stamina: 102/102
Mana: 340/340
Attributes:
Vig: 13
Str: 8
Dex: 10
End: 10
Wis: 17
Wil: 17
Inte: 17
Intu: 17
Free attribute points: 0
Then something slams into me from the door. It feels solid, almost like armor, but softer. As it strikes pain sears across my back. I scream.
As I get up I see scorch marks on the thick wooden door that was blasted open. Apparently it had been searing pain.
Ding!
You have gained the skill [heat resistance]
Exp: 455/500
“God damn that thing hits like a truck.”
The thing that I now know to be a human covered in a physicalization of fire mana (how that's possible I don’t know) said. As his armor fades
Then, we see something’s eyes peering through the doorway. As we scramble to our feet and rush out of the room, stranger included, we see across the hallway a decrepit looking figure that somehow also has muscles. It is humanoid with thin scraggly hair, a mouth that wraps around to the back of the jaw bone and filled with teeth the size and shape of a t-rex’s, maybe a little smaller and straighter, that come forward so as not to stab the head when the mouth closes. Its body is hunched over to about a 35 degree angle, with a withered appearance and skin sunken in so much that you could see most of the rib cage. Its arms and legs filled with emaciated muscle. Each of its hands filled with one of its teeth, held in reverse grip, like an all-blade karambit without the finger ring.
“What the hell is it with these things and their teeth?” Tony says.
“Activate hud”
Ding!
Hud activated
Then the stranger, whom I now recognize to be the janitor Lindon, re-activates his skill. Via sense mana I notice streams of earth, water and light mana. I sense how the water and light mana meet in a gentle spiral that entirely fuses the two before violently crashing against the earth mana in a head on collision, and finally turning into a… was it called an aspect, before meeting the fire mana at the barrier. I’ll try that later, after the fight.
Ding!
Sense mana has leveled up twice
Ding!
You have leveled up
I cast dark blast before Lindon meets the… hobgoblin? Anyway I hit almost dead center and it seems surprised but continues charging nonetheless. As it meets the rest of our party (two rogues, a brawler and some sort of tank) it uses one of its dagger like teeth to slice at Sam who dodges out of the way just in time to avoid getting her throat ripped out, but not in time to avoid her left shoulder being gouged deeply. It followed up with a bite at Zach which I intercepted with an earth wall.
Mana: 325/340
However while it did stop the attack, it also broke. Looks like I’ll need to make a new CC (crowd control) spell soon. The hobgoblin followed its bite with another swipe this time at Lindon, who is knocked off his feet and about two back. As the hobgoblin is recovering from its vicious series of attacks the rogues (on either end of the formation) each take a slice at the arms of the hobgoblin, right where the middle of the inside of the elbow is, the arm Tony sliced dropped limply, sam did some damage but her arm didn’t drop. For my part I prepare four earth walls to block attacks (I am about ten feet back from the furthest wall), meanwhile Zach punches the thing and it blocks with one of its forearms. In retaliation the hobgoblin bites at Zach again, and is blocked by another earth wall.
Mana: 310/340
Then the hobgoblin swipes at one of our rogues who proceeded to dodge. Combat continues for a good minute or two with us scoring glancing blows and our tank being kind of useless without a taunt skill. The encounter ends when Sam cuts its throat after Tony debilitates the other arm, given the teeth a risky gamble.
Ding!
You are in a party with someone who has killed a hobgoblin lvl.5.
You have received 200 exp.
As you are of a lower level than the kill your exp has been doubled.
As you did not help kill the [hobgoblin lvl.5] your exp has been reduced.
Mana: 295/340
…
Mana: 145/340
Now time to rest and try to replicate that skill Lindon has.
10 minutes later
Mana: 10/340
Finally, the spell is complete. Even knowing how it works it was still a challenge to get it working. I’ll call it mage armor and in order for it to be effective it is very mana intensive, also I have five versions of it. One with each primary mana. Light mana, interestingly enough, heals. I found this out when one of my experiments exploded and healed what remained of everyone’s wounds.
After my mana pool fully regenerated I cast a light mage armor with half of it, then waited for my mana to regenerate to full again. I also allocated my attribute points while waiting.
“Status”
Name: Walter
Exp: 355/500
Lvl: 5
Class: archmage
Titles:
Progenitor of saints (equipped)
Arcane saint
Skills:
Sense mana [lvl.5]
Mana manipulation [lvl.5]
Heat resistance [lvl.1]
Health: 170/170
Stamina: 112/112
Mana: 360/360
Attributes:
Vig: 17
Str: 8
Dex: 10
End: 10
Wis: 18
Wil: 18
Inte: 18
Intu: 18
Free attribute points: 0
Now that everyone is recovered we start heading out. We meet no more enemies in the remaining 200 ft to the exit.
When we exit the building I feel a piercing pain in the side of my head. I feel it again at the other side of my head as I start to fall. As I hit the ground I notice out of the corner of my eye a large silver smudge, then as I get up I hear it, the sound of distant gunfire. I see that everyone else is dead as well. But at this point I am numb to the pain of loss at the hands of our government. I heard the gunfire at my 8 o’clock. I start moving in that direction, staying behind buildings as much as I can, usually getting shot in the waist when I can’t, then I hear it, gunfire from the same area as before, but I’m not being shot at as I can’t hear any bullets whiz by. When next I am forced to abandon my cover I am not even shot at. As it is eerily silent I continue down the street foolishly, eager to sate my curiosity. No shots are fired until I get close to a hotel building that is about two stories taller than those surrounding it, and even then I am not the target. It seems to be more of a signal. I cautiously approach the building, and continue to the top floor. There I see a man on a lawn chair, about seven years older than me.
“Huh, your friend got up, I had taken them for dead.”
Then I notice it, he is holding a rifle. He is one of the snipers.
Even so I ask him “what are you doing”.
“Same as you, I’d imagine.”
“What… What do you mean”
“I’m rebelling. And seeing as I have one of those titles who better than you to team up with.”
Suddenly I stop, and the saint continues
“So then, tell me how you managed to get a saint title so soon.”
“Probably my high mental stats. But nevermind that. Which saint are you?”
“I thought it would be obvious, given the rifle and all.”
“So… rifle saint.”
“No, but close. Gun saint. had to max marksmanship and firearm skills to do it. So how did you, hmm?”
“I got lucky, or unlucky depending on how you look at it. I opened a specific set of menus in the system to gather information and got the title that way.”
“So what is your name?”
“Walter”
.
.
.
“So... what is max skill level gun saint?”
“A hundred.”
2 minutes of silence later
“Wraatcha doing human”
“Nice to see you again darkness-that-sneaks-through- sky” I say to the raven.
“I meant other human Walter”
“Why did you go towards the gunfire Walter?” Sam asks from the roof access.
Then she sees Gun Saint.
“Shit”
So saying she rushes gun saint, knife already out. Gun saint’s response is simple, quick, and effective. He pulls out a glock and fires a single bullet into the knife, knocking it from Sam’s grasp.
“I would advise against doing something stupid like that, especially when anyone else would have aimed for the head or heart. … a platoon should be here soon to capture me. I would recommend you prepare.”
While saying this he hands Sam a sidearm and a dagger. Not a kitchen knife but a proper killing knife. Meanwhile I ready surrounding half-high earth walls to provide cover, hopefully before we get shot.
“You, done with your preparations?” Gun saint asks
“Yea, I’m done.”
“Are you a martial fighter or a mage?”
“Mage.”
“Then let's move out, rogue, what’s your name?”
“Sam.”
We went north until we found a car, then proceeded to hijak it and continue north. This makes sense as we live in New York state, we are probably heading to Kingston Canada.
At this point we hear sirens blare as two vehicles come from opposite sides of an intersection we passed
“Pull over, get out of the car and we can resolve this peacefully!”
We hear an electronic-sounding voice blare over speakers
“Sam Accelerate, Walter keep them as far away as you can.” gun saint commands
Well, time to try a new spell. I launch one point of earth mana as fast as I can without losing control, then follow it with void aspected air mana, and if I timed it right … yep, he has a hole in his head now.
As the first car swerves into the side of a building, the other car moves to take it’s place and fires a volley at us; I cover the tires in stone, luckily the improv armor works. Gun saint then takes out a needle (gun) and shoots the only bullet in the thing directly into the driver's head. Having shaken our tales we move on in relative peace
Then, 11 hours, some rations from gun saint, and a boring road trip later, we saw it. Apparently they blockaded the border.
“Halt!”
At this point I’m driving with my mage armor of light on, Sam is in the passenger seat and gun saint is in the back
Gun saint tells me “keep going” and so I do. But not without preparing a few surprises first, like earth walls on three sides of the car, and a pair of tire stops.
“Shoot the tires!” I hear one of them say. I think otherwise as I coat the tires in stone. A few of them are hitting, but no bullets penetrate the improv armor.
“Go for the driver!” The same one says, right before gun saint blows out our windshield and puts a bullet in his head.
But the others still follow the order. I take a few dozen shots before they have to reload. By the time they fumble their mags into their guns we’re at the blockade. By this time we are all pretty sure what we’re doing, so I take my seatbelt off, activate the tire stops, and dive out of the cartwheeling car onto the other side of the blockade and behind enemy lines, followed by everyone else in the vehicle.
Ding!
Hp: 140/170
I cast a dark blast into the throng, killing three:
Ding!
Congratulations: you have killed a human lvl.2.
You have gained 200 exp.
Congratulations: you have killed a human lvl.1.
You have gained 100 exp.
Congratulations: you have killed a human lvl.3.
You have gained 300 exp.
Ding!
You have leveled up
I’d done it. I’ve now killed someone, and I’m not sure how to feel, elated at the level up, downcast at the deaths. But then my anger at the world and determination to survive make the decision for me: I am glad that it was them and not me or my own and I am glad that it increases my power.
After I calm down I proceed to cork all of our enemies' guns with stone. When they try to fire the only thing that they're rewarded with is a burst of shrapnel in their face. We get to them as they are dropping their guns, but before the majority hit the ground. Gun saint, of course, stays back; as I want to test some things with my new armor and he is a purely ranged combatant.
I try to summon a shield using the same process as my armor. Specifically a round shield of light element mana to conserve mana. This is a combat test after all.
Sam rushes in while I try to keep to mid range and fail miserably. Soon the both of us are entangled in the melee. Seeing as I don’t really have the room to cast my one offensive spell I pull out my gun, shoot the first person that comes at me with their combat knife, managing to hit the head. I block the second one with my shield, it shatters and the knife blade plunges halfway into my neck.
Ding!
Congratulations: you have killed a human lvl.1.
You have gained 100 exp.
Ding!
Hp: 20/170
Status inflicted: heavy bleeding: -10Hp/s
Note to self, light is very fragile. I then breathlessly shoot the person currently stabbing me in the chest until he dies, and as he falls he pulls the knife out, clearing the wound and letting the shards of light mana diffuse and heal me.
Ding!
Status cleared: heavy bleeding
I cough and sputter but I am confident in my survival. Then the edges of my vision grow dark, I hear a muffled gunshot and faint.