~~~Lee~~~
Lee woke to blinding daylight streaming in the sliding glass doors, and from a dream that he couldn't quite remember. It had been chaotic... and a maddeningly complex web of something that bordered on...
He had a notification waiting for him. More than one, in fact.
Ley Line Mana is burning your mind. -20 All Mind Attributes per second.(+18 from Energetic Resilience)
Ley Line Mana is burning your mind. -20 All Mind Attributes per second.(+18 from Energetic Resilience)
Ley Line Mana is burning your mind. -20 All Mind Attributes per second.(+18 from Energetic Resilience)
Ley Line Mana is burning your mind. -20 All Mind Attributes per second.(+18 from Energetic Resilience)
Lee remembered his dream now... and wished he hadn't. Because it hadn’t been a dream. He focused on the notifications in an attempt to forget again.
It didn't work for that, but he found something more positive to think about. Aside from the fact that the mystery trait had probably just saved his life again.
New Trait: [Ley Line Attuned]
You immersed your mind into a Ley Line and, defying expectations, emerged alive while retaining your body, mind, and sanity. The experience has attuned your mind to the deeper ways and left you with newfound mental strength.
+100% All Effective Mind Attributes
+100% Mana Well Efficiency
It had no downsides. So long as he didn't think too much about how he'd gained it...
Lee turned to his newest skill... La la la, not thinking about it! He chose the evolution option, and a new notification entered his mind.
Evolution Achievements for Mana Sense (Rare)
You have increased Mana Sense ten levels in less than ten seconds.
You have delved deep into the secrets of Mana.
You have the Trait: [Ley Line Attuned]
You have wielded pure Liquid Mana as a weapon.
You have claimed a Liquid Mana Well.
New Evolution: Mana Sense (Rare) becomes Mana Mind (Epic)
Mana Mind (Epic)
Your mind is intrinsically linked to all Mana within a small radius. This slightly increases Mana manipulation and grants total awareness of all Mana within range.
Your mind actively consumes Mana to fuel greater mental processes. Lack of Mana to fuel this process will have a negative effect. Sustained lack may cause permanent losses.
This is a permanent effect and can not be turned off so long as you have the skill.
Skill Level Effects:
+1% All Effective Mind Attributes at 100% Mana
0% Effect at 50% Mana
-1% All Effective Mind Attributes at 0% Mana
Lee... didn't know what to make of it. It gave him more intelligence... but only if he didn't use his mana? That'd be fine if he was fighting, but did he actually need more intelligence when he was fighting? There was the permanent losses part as well if he ran out of mana for too long.
It was epic instead of the previous rare. That was... probably better. Total awareness of all mana in range sounded stronger than just sensing mana in range... but again, he didn't know what that fucking meant!
He wouldn't be able to turn off the skill. Was that bad? Would he want to? Why was it mentioning that detail otherwise?
Having almost died to gain the option made him not want to pass it up. That made sense... or was he just doubling down on his first mistake?
Lee ground his teeth as he mulled over the choice. His race had changed, sort of, and he was now a mana conduit. Not that he really understood what that meant, other than it clearly involved mana.
His class used mana. A shit-ton of it.
He had a feeling that mana, of all kinds, was going to be a major part of the world from now on. Did he dare not to take any advantage he could?
Fuck it. Lee... almost accepted. First, he got up from the couch and went as far as he could from the Mana Well. Fool me once.
Then he accepted... and didn't move for... a while.
Woah!
It was an awesome skill!
He could see all the surrounding mana. Yet... it wasn't even really that. He wasn't actually seeing or feeling it. He knew all the surrounding mana. Like how he knew where his hands were in relation to his body, Lee knew where all the mana was. He could feel... or maybe see? It was like seeing, only as if he was also feeling what he looked at, and feeling it inside and out in perfect clarity.
It was hard to describe.
The first and most surprising thing was how many colors... well, his Mana Mind didn't see in color, but that was the best description he could think of for what he was sensing. Flavors? Types? First, the mana wasn't blue like he'd originally thought. Not like the Well. Sure, some of it was blue, but most of it carried the color of what it was a part of.
The air was full of pale, wispy mana, almost translucent. His body held far more colors as well. From a lot of red around his heart to the entire spectrum of the rainbow throughout the rest of his flesh, organs, and bones. It went beyond that, too. More varieties and shades of them existed than he knew names for. It had to be 'Aspect' mana.
That lightning class he'd seen during class selection had required Lightning Aspect. Lee didn't know what that would look like, but knew that he didn't have it. Because he could see himself. All the mana inside him. His core and channels. All as clear as day while he watched the constant flow of outside mana entering his body.
It didn't seem to matter which 'colors' came in. All of it faded into the deep blue as it flowed toward his core through his channels. It was slightly worrying considering his debuff, but it also felt right. He wasn't doing anything with it, not actively, and Lee strongly suspected it was simply his mana regeneration at work. Especially since it all went into his core.
His core was... something else. A dense mass of swirling mana, that was both tiny, and yet somehow far too large. The sheer density and power he felt from that little ball was... terrifying. Nothing like the mana drifting through the air or sitting inside the floor below him. Nothing like anything...
The core felt like it should reside directly below his heart. Or so it seemed. Only, it wasn't really there. Lee could see his body, or at least, the mana that suffused his body, which was practically the same thing. And his core wasn't there in the physical reality. It had to be some kind of extra-dimensional thing... but he couldn't find the actual link between the two dimensions, even though he could see both.
He gave up on that tactic. Instead, he followed the mana flowing outward from his core through smaller and more numerous channels. What flowed out was nothing like the crushing power that filled the core. Instead, it felt more akin to the surrounding mana.
It flowed almost uniformly throughout his entire body, either cycling back around to the core or vanishing into his flesh and bones. It also shifted aspects in the process, turning from the deep blue into whatever color permeated the destination, with the only outlier being his head. A lot more mana flowed to his head. In fact, there was an insanely complex storm of mana moving around in there, and it only got harder to study the more he tried.
Lee stopped trying... and laughed when he realized he was literally watching himself think.
It was amazing... and awesome.
Of course, the effect reached only a little over an arm's length in every direction, which was weird because it was an arm's length from his head. When he stood up, it felt like his feet had vanished... sort of.
It felt... different. Then he opened his eyes.
That wasn't right. At all.
Lee felt blind... as if his vision simply ended an arm's length away. Not his eyes. He could see as well as before. But within his mana mind... he could SEE.
Skill Level Up: Mana Mind
The range extended with the level up, and he could almost see his feet.
Lee grinned. He couldn't wait to level this skill. Then he went looking for his machete. Daylight was wasting.
He paused in the living room when he remembered the Well. He'd almost forgotten in the excitement of the new skill, but his Mana Mind could feel the Well like a strong wind blowing from that direction. How had no one noticed this?
Lee wasn't excited about the next part, but he needed to check... so he inched closer and closer to the Well.
On the one hand, if he could power level the skill... on the other, that was a terrible idea that would almost assuredly drive him insane or kill him. He still inched closer.
The Mana Well was important, and something he probably needed if he wanted to enchant the building again. He should find out if his new skill had ruined it...
He approached while leaning far back in a precarious stance. If it was as bad as before, he would fall and leave range, hopefully before his skill leveled up. Though maybe he should have someone else here to drag him away...
His Mana Mind touched the Well and... Lee stepped back. It was still weird, but it didn't suck his mind back into that... place. It also felt nearly identical to what he saw inside his own core. On a larger scale, but still the same color, so to speak. Which made sense. Liquid Mana and all. It would have been terrifying... if he didn't already have a similar thing inside himself...
He shivered. Enough worrying and thinking about that for now. Lee snatched up his machete and hurried out. Time to do something more fun. Like hunting ticks!
Lee stopped just outside his door when he found Maria standing on the balcony. She was looking down into the courtyard, the two small children at her side doing the same only through the metal bars rather than over them. She glanced at him when he emerged, studied him for a long second, and then nodded. "Buenos días, Señor."
That she called him sir caught Lee off guard, but then he saw the hole he'd burned straight through the other side of the building. Maybe that was it.
The two children both turned to look at him as well.
Lee smiled awkwardly and waved. "Hi..."
The little girl... Anita, waved shyly and then tried to hide behind her mother's legs. The slightly older boy only stared at him. Until Maria cleared her throat.
"Buenos..."
"English, Gabriel."
"Gu... moring..." he said, and Maria made a noise. "Sir," he added.
"Morning," Lee said, and moved forward to see what they were all looking at.
It was the snake. Or what was left of it.
A crowd of people were down in the courtyard, and it looked like they were busy cutting it apart. Multiple fires burned around the edges of the open area, and Lee could see the large piles of snake meat cooking over the flames. Smart.
They would have to clear out the corpse anyway before it started rotting and stinking up the entire building, or worse, lured in more monsters looking for a meal. At least this way, they would get a massive amount of food out of it. Though the smell of cooking meat had overpowered any scent of blood, and that might draw monsters just as well...
Then he saw someone walking on the roof across the way, two of them, in fact. So... lookouts?
All of that was secondary, and the smell was the only reason he paid attention to the goings on below. Most of his focus was on the three people who'd just entered his Mana Mind range. Lee could feel them as a slightly fuzzy outline of a person. Like a hole in his perceptions, or maybe more accurately, a solid.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
He could see the mana flowing into them, just like himself, but whereas he could see inside his body, theirs were opaque to the new sense. The strangest part was both children seemed to draw more mana than either he and Maria combined. Not that Maria was drawing more than a trickle, and Lee guessed his Mana Mind was responsible for his own increased intake. It had said his mind would consume mana...
Other than those discoveries, the best part was that if his skill worked the same for monsters, then Lee had just gained a powerful tool to essentially see in every direction at once. It wasn't even as disorienting as he'd worried it would be. He didn't have to focus or try to pay attention to everything around him. He just knew what was there without even thinking about it.
As for the meat that was smelling better by the second, Lee just hoped someone down there knew how to preserve the food since they didn't have any freezers... though, he could make one if he wanted to. Not for a couple more days, but once his debuff ended... he could make a lot of... things.
"Where's Alejandro?" Lee asked, followed immediately by his stomach growling.
Maria pointed up, and Lee didn't understand. "Roof."
Ah. He looked around for a way to get up there, and considered if he could climb up from the hole across the courtyard.
Maria pointed toward the stairs.
Lee found the formerly fenced off flight of stairs leading higher, he'd forgotten it was there... Though to be fair, he'd used the elevator to move in, and the first time he'd used this stairwell had been when he found both a giant dead frog and a dead woman. Someone had... removed the bodies since then...
He tried not to think about it and ran upstairs to the roof. There, he found Alejandro and Jake. A few more people had spread out around the courtyard, but Lee didn't recognise any of them.
"Really, Jake?" Lee said as he approached the duo. "You're on guard duty? Willingly?"
Jake rolled his eyes and pointed into the sky. Lee followed the direction and saw... a few dark specks?
"Monster vultures," Jake said. "Big tough ones. Unfortunately, they're cowards."
"Probably because you killed a dozen of them already," Alejandro said with a laugh and went to pound the other man on the back.
A gesture Jake avoided with a smooth twist and step. "I also get a share of the prepared meat for my oh so dangerous job of keeping everyone safe."
"I could do some guard duty..." Lee trailed off when he remembered he'd abandoned his shield. He really needed to go get that... but he'd also taken the runes from it, too. So it would be useless and he didn't need it. Besides, they had recruited a blacksmith last night. She could make him a real shield...
"Don't worry!" Alejandro exclaimed. "What's mine is yours, Lee. Besides, you killed the snake! So, by Jake's logic, the entire thing is yours!"
"Sure," Jake said. "Just go tell everyone else..." He stopped talking abruptly and stared at Lee right when he entered Mana Mind range. "That is not Mana Sense."
"What? You can sense that? Wait, how do you know what Mana Sense is..."
Jake smiled. "You either got a new class skill, or evolved the shard I gave you. I'm guessing it was the latter and had something to do with all the screaming right after you went to bed. Am I right?"
"How..."
"You scared me with that," Alejandro said. "Thought you were getting eaten again. We had to climb through from the porch, but Maria said you were fine. Even though your eyes were glowing brighter…"
"Thanks for that..." Lee didn't want his windows broken either if he could... "Wait, my eyes were glowing?"
"They still are," Alejandro said, and stared at him. "Did you not know?"
"No..." Lee hadn't slept in the bathroom as planned or he might have seen the mirror.
"It is not so bright as it was... right after the snake..." Alejandro looked like he desperately wanted to ask more.
Lee sighed. "I need to tell you guys something, and I'd really appreciate it if it doesn't go any further than you two." He glanced around to make sure no one else was close enough to overhear, and then he told them about the Well. How it gave him mana, how that helped him enchant the building, how someone might want to kill him for it, and how that might have been the catalyst for the snake almost killing all of them.
Jake had already seen the skill shard, so he understood the implication immediately. Alejandro didn't get it until Lee explained.
"You might want to move into a different building," Lee said finally. "Probably at the other end of the complex, if not somewhere else entirely."
"I think Maria will agree," Alejandro replied slowly. "We will leave."
Lee was surprised to feel the sting of loss and rejection at Alejandro's words. He didn't realize how much he'd enjoyed the other man's support until it was leaving... even so, it was the right thing to do. They needed to leave. "You... will you still hunt with me?"
"What?" Alejandro looked genuinely confused. "Of course. You saved our lives! My whole family lives because of what you did. I will fight at your side forever."
"I..." Lee blinked back traitorous moisture from his eyes. "I thought you said you were leaving..."
"For three days, right? That is how long you need to heal?"
"Yes..."
"Then we will return! The children can't absorb the cores, so we must keep them safe. Until then, I will help you defend this place. Because I am assuming you wish to keep this Well, no?"
"I do... I think." He had needed it for the building before, but now he was F-grade, and with a boost to his mana. He might not actually need it... but he wouldn't let it go without a fight. The tidbit about children not being able to use cores was... interesting, but not important at the moment. "What about you, Jake?"
"I'll let Sandy know... not about your secret, but I'll tell her you're a trouble magnet. Which I'm sure she knows by now." He smirked. "So what's the new skill? It's a strange feeling on my end..."
It was Lee's turn to smirk. "We all have secrets." His smile faded. "It shouldn't draw any danger here. At least... not any more than there already is, and... Wait, did everyone else get to F-grade? We had enough cores before..." Before Sandra almost died and Saira got abducted.
"We had enough, and I will tell Maria," Alejandro said. "She must know, even though she may be angry with you for hiding it before."
"Tell what?" Maria said behind them, and both Lee and Alejandro jumped. Jake laughed.
Alejandro said a bunch of stuff to her in Spanish. Maria said a bunch back while shooting a variety of expressions Lee's way.
Then Jake chimed in, also in Spanish. Whatever he said to Maria, she didn't like it and switched her glare to him.
Lee stood awkwardly, with no idea what was going on. Other than that they were likely talking about him.
Jake saw his expression and explained. "She threw a knife in the snake's eye, and then hid inside your building until it almost fell down." He turned a glare toward Maria. "I told her not to pick fights she can't finish."
That would explain the glare, from both of them, and why his runes had been in the snake's head…
Jake abruptly leaned back and fired an arrow into the sky.
Alejandro placed himself more firmly in front of Maria and they both started backing away as Lee looked up.
It was indeed a vulture, one on the same scale as the hawk they'd seen yesterday, and it was diving on the building.
Lee held up his machete, and it was pathetically small. A glance told him that Maria was already off the roof and inside, for whatever good that would do. Meanwhile, Alejandro was coming back his way.
Jake was building a more substantial charge on his next arrow, and he was close enough that Lee could see the mana at work. It streamed out of the man, mostly from his hand on the string, and spiraled up the arrow to concentrate at the tip.
Lee raised his free hand. His left hand. Worst case, he would blast it... maybe using his left hand would help reduce the damage...
Jake fired. The arrow streaked up at the bird, which spun away far too fast, dodging... and the arrow exploded next to its head.
The vulture spiraled further off course and wobbled as Jake charged another shot. Before he could fire it off, the bird had stabilized and was winging away at speed.
Jake shot anyway, but the bird had more time to dodge. It exploded further away and the bird only swayed as it kept running.
"Cowards," Jake grumbled. "Killed a lot of them before the rest learned their lesson. Now they give it another try every so often, but always run away after the first hit."
Lee dropped his raised hand in relief. He really didn't want to do that again. Especially since he not only had full mana right now, but he had hit F-grade, which doubled his total mana. That might have... Shit, it probably would have killed him. Note to self. Don't do that again. Ever.
He looked over at Jake, who was miming his earlier motion. "You gonna blast em?" Jake asked. "Think it'll reach that high?"
"I'm not," Lee said. "Never again."
"That's no fun. Your attack was awesome! I wanna see it again."
Lee started walking away and then stopped. "How's Sandra?"
Jake lost his smile. "Not taking the whole near death thing too well. Thought she was tougher than that... but I guess we'll have to wait and see."
Lee shook his head and left. He didn't like near death things either. Plus, he was hungry, and... "Alejandro, what are people doing about bathrooms?"
Turned out there was some lady making magic water in the complex and people were already bribing her to fill up bathtubs and toilet tanks. Not that Alejandro called it that, but she was busy, which meant Lee needed something to offer if he wanted water anytime soon.
The thought of a bath or shower was extremely appealing, and having to rely on someone else to get that was not. Lee was an enchanter, sort of. He didn't need anyone else if he could make it himself. Well, he wouldn't need anyone else in... sixty-ish hours, at least. Unfortunately, he didn't have any runes that made water, but had some ideas using a few other runes together that might do the trick.
He could wait that long...
"I'll ask Maria to talk with her," Alejandro said. "She knows her already and helped with something yesterday. You should have water later today, and for now, just go ask Maria to use ours."
Lee paused mid-step as he was about to leave. It really did pay to have friends, didn't it? Though going to Maria for favors felt... he wasn't sure. Something about the woman was scary... but he had saved her life. That was enough of an excuse to use someone's toilet... right? Oh god. He really hoped it didn't clog.
...
Later, and feeling much better if only slightly cleaner, Lee joined the workforce in the courtyard. His talk with Alejandro regarding water had highlighted another thing he would need, and a lot at that; food. "Hi, Jamaal."
"Hold," Jamaal said, and held up a hand as stared at the cooked and steaming meat spread out on his tray, his other hand hovering over the food.
Lee took a step closer, just enough for his Mana Mind to reach, then watched as the man clearly used magic to do... something. Despite seeing the mana, it didn't actually tell him what it was doing. Still, it was interesting to watch it move, especially with how dense it was inside the meat. It wasn't just the cooked meat either. The snake's whole body was thick with more mana than anything else Lee had seen. It was on par with what filled his own body, but slightly more...
When Jamaal finished and looked up, he seemed unsure for a moment, then brightened. "Lee! You back for more after try my cooking, eh? There is enough for all!"
He laughed with the same cheer he'd shown the night before, and Lee smiled in return. "I am, but also, what was the magic? If you don't mind telling me."
"To keep it good. Too much to eat now. Have to save for longer." Jamaal handed Lee a skewer straight from the fire. "Here. Fresh. Hot. Enjoy!"
Lee sat and very much enjoyed his breakfast. It was as good as he remembered from the night before.
"No slacking until we're finished!" Lee heard the shout, but didn't realize it was aimed at him until a figure entered his Mana Mind from behind. "Jamaal, you can't just feed anyone who wanders in!"
"But..."
"As for you," the man said, turning on Lee and looming over him. "Get back to work or get out!"
Lee stood up, machete in hand again. "I live here, and..."
"No excuse, if you're not going to work, then at least give the machete to someone who will." He held a hand as if expecting Lee to hand over his weapon.
Lee had a strange feeling of déjà vu as he said, "Back off." He wasn't about to waste his enchant on cutting up the snake. Any weapon could do that, by evidence of all the people already doing it.
So of course, the man grabbed his wrist and tried to take the machete.
Unfortunately for him, he was not F-grade yet. Lee didn't budge as he glared at the man. "Let go of me and never try to take my weapon again." He remembered why this felt so familiar now... but Lee wouldn't stab him. It would waste the enchant. Though he was considering punching the man...
The guy seemed to realize he couldn't win and stepped back. "One of those, huh? Maria is in charge of this operation. You want me to call her? She's not scared of you punks."
"I don't work for you," Lee said. "This is my weapon, my kill, and my home. I'm not going anywhere."
"Maria!" the man yelled. Seriously, what was wrong with people?
It took all of two seconds for the woman in question to appear next to him, which was another fascinating experience for Lee. He saw the mana fly in from outside his range and latch onto him, assemble into an outline of a person, brighten considerably, and then Maria suddenly filled the outline. He couldn't see her move into position. It was too fast. But his skill 'knew' that she had moved, rather than just appearing in place.
"Cuál es el problema?"
Lee got the gist of what she said, but not whatever the other man said back in even faster Spanish. Then Maria fired back, and her explanation involved a lot of pointing at the snake, then up at the hole in the building, then at Lee...
She wasn't...
The man paled, glanced once at Lee with wide eyes, then nearly ran away as he found someone else to yell at.
Maria vanished from his Mana Mind, but the trail she left told him which direction she'd gone. Lee glared up at her on the balcony. Did she have to go around telling people that was him? Though maybe if it stopped interactions like that from happening again...
Jamaal was working very studiously when Lee turned back, but he'd seen the man staring at his back with Mana Mind. Lee sat back down.
"Jamaal, I came down here to make a deal with you." The man looked up then, meeting his eyes. "I will bring you cores and or monsters. In exchange, you make food for me. How's that sound?"
"Is excellent!" Jamaal was all beaming smiles again. "But why me?"
"Umm, I met you first... and your food is great!" Lee smiled sheepishly. It was because he didn't know anyone else here. Much less anyone who could cook. Well, Maria could cook, but this guy had an actual class for it. From what he'd seen last night, the man was not at all eager to fight. So this would benefit both of them.
Lee stood up. "I should warn you, I eat a lot." He doubted Jamaal truly understood the statement, but he would in time.
Deal struck, Lee went looking for anyone who might go hunting with him. He still needed cores. His little adventure last night had cost him a large chunk of attributes. Not that he was complaining, it was totally worth it. Mana Mind was epic. Literally and figuratively.
Status
Name:
Lee Cascade
Race:
[Mana Conduit](F-Grade Human)
Traits: [Adaptable] [Energetic Resilience] [Conduit] [Ley Line Attuned]
Class: Runic (Legendary) - Level 5 (Novice)
Class Skills: Rune Scribe (Uncommon) - Level 8 (Novice)
Attributes:
Strength: 10(+1%)10.1
Vitality: 10(+2%)10.2
Dexterity 10(0%)10
Wisdom 2(+132%)4.6
Intelligence 2(+129%)4.5
Willpower 2(+128%)4.5
Twin-Soul ???
Non-Class Skills(1/3): Liquid Mana Blast (Rare) - Level 1 (Novice) || Mana Mind (Epic) - Level 2 (Novice)
Buffs:
Debuffs: [Mana Burn]
One good thing he'd learned from the ordeal was that dropping attributes below F-grade didn't actually knock him back into ungraded. Something about the evolution had changed him on a fundamental level and it no longer mattered what his attributes were. Presumably.
Of course, finding out the hard way that he could lose his hard earned attributes was... not ideal.