“One, two, three, four,” they were chanting while moving the makeshift siege tower into the new zone.

Last time they went into a new zone farther inland it took a long time before they finally ran into a new monster.

“Oh shit! It’s here! Drop the tower now!” Brian yelled.

This time, it only took five steps before a monster came.

“Start shooting!” Jack said, and pulled out his gun and aimed it through the eye slit.

A giant anaconda snake was rapidly slithering towards them. It was two times bigger than the big wolf monster.

All of Jack’s shots missed. Brian hit it two times in its back but missed its head.

It came to the makeshift siege tower and slithered through all the spears and tried to enter through the bottom panel of branches layered on top of each other.

It bit a hole through the bottom part of the siege tower and stuck its head inside.

Jack and Brian fired all of their remaining bullets point blank range into its face.

Challenge completed. Reward: 1 unbound skill point.

“Yessss!!”

“Fuck yeah! Fucking finally!”

“Let’s get the skills now and get the fuck out of here before another snake comes in through that hole this fucker made!”

“Oh great system, I want to spend my skill point on the skill Mana Sense!” Jack said.

Mana Sense: Rank 1

Jack almost dropped to the ground from sensory overload. Brian caught him and laughed.

“You’re such a bitch,” Brian said.

“Fuck off, you fell down too you piece of shit,” Jack said.

Jack balanced himself and pushed Brian off.

“Oh dear super system, I want to spend my skill point on mana generation!”

Mana Generation: Rank 1

Brian didn’t have time to try to sense this new skill.

“You good princess, can we leave now?” Brian said.

“Wait, it’s not here, Brian…” Jack said.

“What? What do you mean?” Brian said.

“Yo, check if you still have the exit button,” Jack said while looking extremely worried.

“Oh fuck! Lemme check!” Brian said. He looked to the bottom right corner of his eye and saw the exit button.

Brian looked up at Jack, confused. Jack raised his middle finger and disappeared from thin air.

“Fuck you.” Brian reached for his exit button and mentally touched it.

…

“Ayy bitch, why are you wasting time here? Don’t you wanna start making some real fucking money? I’ll treat you good, bitch. Let’s get rich together. You ever heard about webcamming?” Lucas said to the nurse changing his IV while he was laying in bed.

“Every fucking day you say the same shit. Fuck off,” the nurse said.

“Watch yo fucking mouth!” Lucas said and spanked her on the ass.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Hey!” she yelled. She threw a cup of water at his face. She gave him a nasty look and quickly walked towards the exit of the room.

She almost walked into Brian. She stopped and looked up at the two men covered in dirt and grime. They smelled horrible.

“Ayy bish, what that thang do,” Brian said.

She pushed Brian and Jack away while they laughed and she exited the room.

“Hahaha you’re such a bitch! She threw water on your face!” Jack said.

“Yeah, she should have saved it for you two. Fucking smelling like shit. You couldn’t shower first? Let’s get the fuck outta here,” Lucas said, and got up.

“Excuse me sir, but you’re gonna have to pay your medical bills before you leave,” Brian said.

“Oh yeah. Just send the bill to Fernando,” Lucas said, as he got up and switched from his hospital clothes to his normal clothes.

“How was the stay, Lucas? Did the doc touch your prostate? Did you like it?” Jack said.

“No, but he thought I had cancer after seeing the bulge on these huge balls,” Lucas said.

…

“We should’ve gone to the motel first. You two smell like piss,” Lucas said, and took a bite of his lasagna.

“Fuck no. I’ve been eating canned and dried food for too long,” Brian said. He had 6 plates of various dishes in front of him.

“Let’s buy new clothes after the pawnshop. Fucking never wanna wear this shit. I can feel the grease up my asshole,” Jack said.

“Yeah yeah. Now, do your job,” Lucas said, and pointed his bandaged and fingerless hand at Jack and Brian.

“Chill man. At least let me fucking practise doing this shit. I just got mana generation. You know, it feels super warm. I can sense all the mana constantly just leaving my body and drifting away to the outside world. But it feels great. So warm. Lemme do something testing before we get started,” Brian said.

He reached inside himself, at his core where the mana was constantly being generated. When he tried manipulating it he was shocked at how easily it bent to his will.

“Oh shit! Like this shit, it’s a hundred times easier than bending mana in the environment back in the game.”

Brian kept playing around with the mana generating in his stomach.

It felt like there were so many things he could do with it.

He played around with it with his eyes closed.

“Okay, that’s good and all Harry Potter, but can we fucking get me healed? This shit still hurts,” Lucas said.

“Okay okay. Jack, can you draw that circle on a napkin?” Brian said.

Jack had mouthfuls of food in his mouth so he couldn’t speak. He just nodded and drew it while eating.

“Okay, here we go,” Brian said. “Okay… how do I do this? Eh…”

Brian focused. The mana was all the way down in his stomach, always spreading around to the environment. He tried moving it from his stomach to the napkin. That didn’t go well. Every time it was outside his body, it suddenly became many times harder to manipulate it. And the farther away from his body it was, the harder it became.

He then tried guiding the mana all the way from his stomach to his hand, passing through his body. That worked. Now a lot of the mana was dissipating to the environment through his arm. And a lot of it was also leaving his body through the stomach and along the way to his hand. He had very crude control of his internal mana.

He started trying to guide the mana into the piece of paper. It was very hard. Brian couldn’t do it.

“Yeah… I don’t think this is gonna work. Like. I have to keep all the old mana staying, and then I have to like put new. Squeeze it in. And it’s hard to remember this circle. I don’t know,” Brian said.

“Fuck me,” Lucas said.

He shared all his newfound knowledge about using mana.

“I feel like so much of it is still just leaving my body. Away from my control. I need to practice more with this,” Brian said.

“Okay, fuck it. I’m fine enough. We go back in the game. Get more skill points. Crystals. Whatever the fuck. The doc amputated the black stuff off. I’ll be fine. I just keep taking antibiotics,” Lucas said.

“Yeah, that’s all right. But before we fucking do ANYTHING!” Jack suddenly interrupted both of them loudly.

“I have somewhere I wanna take you two,” Jack said. He smiled as he showed Lucas and Brian the website he was looking at.

//////

Jack:

Knife Fighting: Rank 1

Knife Fighting: Rank 2

Python (programming language): Rank 1

Mana Generation: Rank 1

Sand to Glass Conversion Mana Blueprint: Rank 1

Healing Mana Blueprint: Rank 1

Origami: Rank 1

Enhanced Bodily Recovery: Rank 1

Speed Counting: Rank 1

Enemy Weakness Identification: Rank 1

Poetry: Rank 2

Blueprint visualizer: Rank 1

Mana Sense: Rank 1

Brian:

Shield Defending: Rank 1

Marksmanship (pistol): Rank 1

Right Arm Increased Strength: Rank 1

Mana manipulation: Rank 1

Mana Sense: Rank 1

Enhanced Propriosense in Toes: Rank 1

Enhanced Bodily Recovery: Rank 1

Flame Shield Dispel: Rank 1

Cryptography: Rank 1

Enemy Pattern Recognition: Rank 1

Airplane Pilot: Rank 1

Mana Generation: Rank 1

Lucas:

Insect Movement Control: Rank 1

Enlarged Penis: Rank 1

Mana sense: Rank 1

Mana Manipulation: Rank 1

Surfing: Rank 1

Arithmetic: Rank 1