Status:

Lvl: 15

Name: Lucas Romano

Race: Human

Class: Glass Warrior

Health Points (HP): 480/480

Mana Points (MP): 370/370

Stamina: 210/240

Stats:

Strength: 46

Agility: 59

Toughness: 10*

Perception: 29

Vitality: 40*

Magic: 20

Distributable points: 6

It was always satisfying to see the numbers going up, but this time more than ever before, Lucas had to distribute his free points wisely. His decisive fight with Axis was drawing nearer, and his future prospects depended on it. Before making any rash decisions, he began to consider his situation rationally.

Axis focused mainly on power, based on Flavya's info, and all his skills revolved around that. However, thanks to his many fabricated achievements, he wasn't the least bit slow, which was sure to be problematic. A single hit from the guy could break Lucas into pieces.

It was true that he still had his shield, but looking at it on his arm, he didn't feel good leaving his destiny in the hands of some alien device. If only Axis hadn't broken Tornik's equipment, Lucas thought as he started walking toward the place where the brave man had finally succumbed to the pressure from a much stronger opponent.

Looking at the pieces of the deceased man scattered on the floor, Lucas confirmed there was no saving any of it. Even his identification skill didn't work on them anymore, so that ship had truly sailed. Lucas sighed a little at that; some part of him was really excited about the prospect of becoming some immortal being capable of regenerating at will. He bet even Axis would have trouble dealing with that.

"You did good," Flavya said, walking towards him from an alley.

"You did too," Lucas complimented back.

"Is that the equipment you mentioned?" she asked, pointing at a silver glow in the midst of all the blood and gore.

Lucas nodded sadly. "It doesn’t matter; we can still beat him without it," he said, more to himself than to her, and then added, "What should we do now? There shouldn’t be a lot of people left, right?”

She remained silent for a while. "Since the start of the Showdown, based on what you’ve told me and those you killed after meeting me, your total count is 13 now, and I killed 3 myself. Based on what you said, you killed Halyk pretty early on, so it's possible he hadn't killed anyone by that point, but Axis must’ve killed at least five, and assuming people died in other battles as well... there really shouldn't be many left."

Lucas hadn’t stopped to think about how many people he had killed so far, but now that he heard her saying he had killed nearly half of the contest's participants, instead of feeling guilty, he felt really glad.

He still hadn’t surpassed the great challenge that was Axis, but he had done everything possible to ensure his achievement would be impressive if he managed to be the last man standing.

"It will be pretty hard to look for people in this city if they don’t want to be found, though," Lucas said, looking around at the empty buildings. If someone truly decided to hide for the entire contest, could they search through every corner of that place? What if they kept moving? Fortunately, from Flavya's cheeky smile, Lucas assumed she had a solution for that problem.

"I have a way to detect if there are people around, but if I have to see the entire city, it will cost a lot of mana, so we'll have to wait before we can go hunting whoever is still around."

"That's fine, go ahead and do it," Lucas said after a moment's thought, as the idea of spending the next few hours searching through rundown buildings didn't appeal to him.

Lucas expected her to take another unknown object from her ring, and even though she did take something out, it wasn't completely foreign to him. Is that a crayon? he wondered, looking at the purple object in her hand. The next thing she did, after moving away from all the blood on the floor, was start to draw on the pavement. It was a really intricate drawing that slowly formed a circle around her.

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When she finished, about ten minutes later, Lucas felt the mana in the air around her shift, and the pupils disappeared from her eyes, leaving them completely white. While the girl seemed to be in some sort of trance, Lucas waited patiently on the side, keeping a sharp eye and ear out for any dangers that might come their way, but nothing happened.

After a few minutes of that sepulchral silence and nothing happening, Lucas began to grow a little uncomfortable, as the notion that the silence was almost 50% his fault started to sink in. He had been so busy lately that he really didn’t have much time left to think about things, and he preferred it that way.

Thankfully, his torture didn’t last long, as the girl awakened from her stupor and almost collapsed, with Lucas hurrying to support her.

"Are you okay?" he asked, concerned, as the girl raised her hand to her head.

"Yes, I'm fine," she said, recomposing herself, although her skin still looked pretty pale. "This just took a lot more mana than I was expecting. My mana ran out, and you know what it feels like when that happens."

"I actually don’t," Lucas replied, and she looked at him weirdly before realization struck her.

"I keep forgetting about your memory issue. Anyway, it’s just like a hangover, but it’s fine. I have plenty of this," she said, picking a mana potion from her ring and drinking it.

It was impressive how the color came back to her face almost instantly, and her body straightened. Lucas had no intention of correcting her about the fact that he didn’t know what a mana “starvation” was like, simply because he had never run out of mana and didn’t have a clan to teach him these things.

"So, what did you find?" Lucas asked, anxious to discover how many were still alive.

"At the start, there were three, but two disappeared shortly after."

"So, that means..."

"Yup. Axis probably killed them. It's only us three now."

Lucas felt a tinge of excitement mixed with doubt, and for a few moments, they remained silent until Flavya spoke again.

"I believe those two that died probably thought it was a good idea to attack Axis together while he was tired," she said, then shrugged. "Apparently, he wasn’t tired enough to stop him from killing both of them."

The implications of her words were clear to Lucas: they also wanted to team up to take down Axis. Would they share the same fate as those two? Since Flavya didn’t seem overly concerned, he decided not to worry too much.

“How long before we can go after him?” Lucas asked.

“The mana potion wasn’t enough to refill my mana pool completely, and it’s better to wait before I can use another potion anyway, just in case we need it later. In the meantime, it’s best if we stay out of sight. It wouldn’t be good if he finds us before we find him.”

Lucas nodded and glanced around the scene one last time, pausing at the mangled bodies, including Tornik’s, and then at Flavya’s magic circle. That’s when he suddenly had an idea and turned toward the girl again.

“Those magic seals you mentioned—can you make one for Toughness?”

“Sure. Why?”

“I’ll need it. If you can make one that affects stamina as well, even better.”

“That’s not a problem, although it will take me longer to recover. But you know you can only use one at a time, right? Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer one that enhances agility or maybe strength?”

Lucas had almost forgotten that Flavya didn’t know everything about him. Even though she had researched him before this event, she probably didn’t know that Lucas’s bones were like glass and that his Toughness was a joke.

After all, Lucas didn’t advertise his weaknesses for everyone to see, and since he dodged most attacks when fighting, it was hard to tell if you didn’t already know. He wondered if Flavya would have accepted this partnership at all if she had known. Still not wanting to reveal his secret, Lucas chose to answer with a half-truth.

“I’m actually more interested in the stamina boost. I have a skill that requires a lot of stamina, and it can be very useful.”

Flavya went silent for a while, thinking, and Lucas wondered if she suspected he was bluffing.

His aura wasn’t actually a skill, but he didn’t doubt that there was a skill out there that required stamina to use, so he thought it was a passable excuse. However, Flavya’s lasting silence made him uncomfortable, to the point where he had to say something.

“What is it?”

She hesitated before speaking. “If it’s stamina you’re after, I can make you a magic seal that will enhance your stamina pool tenfold.”

Lucas’s heart raced at the thought. Ten times over? Wouldn’t that make him nearly immortal for a while? Previously, he had asked Flavya for a magic seal in the hopes of getting something to increase his ability to take hits and slightly boost his stamina, but this was much, much better. A strategy was already forming in his mind when Flavya spoke again.

“Before we go any further, you need to understand that if I do this, it will take much longer for me to recover. Even though Axis doesn’t have my methods, his clan must have expected a scenario where people would run away from him and prepared countermeasures for it.”

Lucas nodded in understanding. What was implied was clear: if Axis managed to find them before Flavya could recover, he’d be on his own. But Lucas had no doubt in his mind when he replied:

“Do it.”

…

The process of creating the magic seals took much longer this time. Flavya’s own was quick enough, but Lucas’s took about thirty minutes to complete and resulted in a very long and intricate parchment. After finishing, Flavya simply fainted, and Lucas had to place her on the couch in the apartment they had taken over.

Carefully, he poured the contents of a stamina potion into her mouth until she regained consciousness. Still looking pretty tired after waking up, she handed him the parchment that was still clutched in her hands.

“Take it. Tie it around your waist. It will last 24 hours, which is more than enough for me to recover.”

“That’s more than I was expecting,” Lucas said frankly. “What about your eye-enhancing seal? Won’t it conflict with the new one?”

Flavya shook her head. “For this fight, magic will be more important. I’ll swap one for the other.”

Lucas nodded and thanked her for the seal before tying it around his waist. Immediately after, he felt a cool sensation spreading throughout his body, lasting about thirty seconds before fading.

Looking down, Lucas noticed the seal had disappeared. Brimming with excitement, he checked his status, and even though he knew it would happen, he was shocked to see his stamina jump from 240 to 2,400.

Overwhelmed, Lucas looked at Flavya, who was meditating in a lotus position on the couch, and couldn’t help but feel like he had struck gold when he found her. Not only could she help him from a distance, but she could also elevate his fighting power by multiplying his stamina tenfold, allowing his Life Aura to really show its value.

At that moment, he was very glad he hadn’t accepted the shooter’s offer, as what he had now was much better than anything a futuristic gun could do.

It’s crazy how one decision can change everything, Lucas thought, both intrigued and frightened by what that entailed.