Mark was eating his fifth Tinkie for breakfast and washing it down with some mineral water. A couple of years ago this would have been the breakfast of champions for him, but now he was left feeling hungry and wishing for a balanced meal.
Everyone was sitting in a circle, they were all waiting to see who would speak up first. Finally, when Mark had finished his last mouthful he spoke up.
“Okay guys, I think it's time we voted. I’ll tell you my thoughts and then you guys can decide for yourselves.”
Mark had begun to play with the wrapper and noticing himself doing this he dropped it.
“I have two reasons for wanting to help. The first and most important is that people are trapped with no way out. If they are in a Walmart then they have plenty of food for now, but eventually, desperation will set in.
I can’t think of a worse fate. Never knowing if anyone is coming to your rescue. I think it is our duty to help, we have the power to do something about it so we should.”
Mark paused to let them absorb that and then continued.
“The second reason is not as pressing but no less important. I’ve said it already, but we need to prepare for what's coming. This place is perfect for us to spend time testing ourselves against these creatures. Learning their weakness, and farming exp points.
Sure we could rush to the army and get protection but what happens when they can no longer protect us? We need to be the ones to fight for ourselves.”
He looked at each person, finally stopping on Daphne.
“So I'm voting we stay and help where we can”
He expected instant rejection on Grace's part but she didn't immediately shoot down the idea.
Instead, choosing to remain silent for now.
Daphne was the next person to speak up.
“I think we can do a lot of good together, we aren't the same people we were before all this started. I vote we try and help them because now that we do something about it it would be a crime to turn away from their suffering.”
She sat up straight speaking with conviction.
Donny spoke next.
“So, I don't mean to be a buzzkill, but if what you guys are saying about those numbers down there is true, I don't think it's worth sticking around. Let's keep moving and come back with reinforcements later. Our survival should be our main concern right now, you know?”
The entire time Donny said this he kept stealing glances at Grace. He had a firm expression but a faint dopey smile would appear on his face whenever he looked at her.
Mark and Daphne now looked at Grace. She had a conflicted expression.
“Look I want to help too, but we should still leave, we don't even have a plan.”
“Actually I’ve been thinking about that and I think I might have one,” Mark said.
“Oh really well I'm all ears,” she looked interested.
“So the basic idea would be to silently clear out the second floor and then using junk we can find around the place we barricade the stairwells and escalators leaving one open as a choke point. Then we take turns holding the line, rotating to give ourselves breathing room”
There were more details to the plan and a great number of things could go wrong but it was the best chance he saw at clearing them out in a reasonable time frame.
“It's a good idea but if you hadn't already seen it I don't really have spells good for single-target situations.” She said.
“Mmm well, that's not a problem, how about I teach you the [Force bolt] spell or we could work on some variation of it for you” Mark suggested.
Her forehead scrunched up
“Well okay, but listen if this goes sideways then we retreat right away,” she said firmly.
Mark smiled, he both was surprised she said yes and confused. She had been so against it yesterday.
He nodded in agreement.
“Well then, I’ll start working with you right away while we're busy you guys should go out scouting.” He said.
Ethel stepped forward.
“Thank you, everyone. Really. You’re in a tough spot I get that, so this means a lot. I’ll take the two of you out now if you want.” she said grinning at all of them.
“Sure thing, I’d like to see what’s going on out there before we tackle this” Donny said.
Everyone was getting ready to move, but just before they left Mark went over to Donny. He was chatting with Grace in hushed tones. They were sitting on their sleeping bags. Donny got up and motioned for Mark to follow. When they were far enough away from Grace, Mark began talking
“Listen, dude, I’m sorry about how that went down”
“Nah, don't worry bout it man, Grace seemed to think this was for the best, I’m learning to put my trust in her, and you should too, she’d make a great leader if you asked me.” Donny declared.
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“Yeah, sure” his voice sounded unconvincing even to himself. Something was bothering him about his whole situation. Donny had put up almost no resistance when he was completely outvoted. It's almost like he didn't care. Mark's eyes flickered over to Grace, he was starting to get a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“Sweet. Listen, I gotta go. We’ll be back soon. Try and get along okay?” he said while rushing after Ethel and Daphne.
The door clicked shut behind them.
Mark turned back to face Grace with a sense of frustration. Not trying to hide it at all he said.
“Should we begin?”
As it turned out Grace took longer than Mark would have thought to learn a spell. In principle, she understood what Mark was saying but when it came to giving the spell intent she couldn't seem to gather the willpower to force it to remain. This led to a number of miscasts and losses of Mana which in turn meant they had to wait for her Mana to regen. After a couple of hours, she put a similar spell together. It produced a 3-foot blade of wind, which she said was called [wind slash] she said it cost considerably less Mana than [Lightning bolt] while still giving her more control and precision.
All of their exchanges were polite, however, that was all. Neither chatted nor even tried to put on a smile. When the others were away Grace never felt the need to hide and Mark wasn't going to entertain her act. So most of the time was spent in silence, with Mark giving instructions where he thought she was stuck.
He was pretty sure her new spell was much more deadly than his [Force bolt] but it probably cost a fair bit more Mana. It was interesting seeing someone else work with their Mana. As Mark watched her he started to get a feel for her Intent, the way it left an imprint on the world, almost like a fingerprint. That was when Mark came to the realization that Mana was intrinsic to the user. Spells left a mark of sorts in the area where they were released. A ping sounded in his ears. Pulling him from his musings. Pleasantly surprised, he opened it right away.
The reward does not yet warrant a skill classification. Realization in the Law of Mana has led to an improvement on the path.
+1 Mana attribute and 5 exp points
He thought back to what he was doing just a moment ago. He had been watching Grace perform the spell and had fallen into a zen-like state by following how she had built up and released the Mana.
In some sense, he guessed he had been meditating.
Mark looked back to Grace’s spellwork
He was seeing a haze as it left Grace, Stamp marked with her intent and personal signature.
The area they had been practicing in was filled with traces of her Mana; it was very slowly dissipating and dissolving back into the air. If he had to guess it would be almost gone in a couple of hours.
The fact that one could improve their Mana stat outside of combat came as a shock to Mark. If people found a safe space to practice their path and contemplate it, did that mean that they never need to leave the safe zones to level? Bigger still was it only Mana that could do this? He was leaning towards no because from what he had seen of the system it was very well-balanced in all the attributes.
While Mark was digesting this something caught his eye in the corner of the room. It was faint but Mark could make out a casting of a spell. Older than the rest. Turning to focus on it he came to the conclusion it had to have been one of the first spells cast today, but as he stared at it. He realized that the location was all wrong; they had been practicing in the center of the room and this spell originated from Donny and Grace's sleeping bags. It was definitely her signature. How had it gotten there?
Mark’s eyes began to flicker with a harsh light as things started to click into place. The two of them had been whispering about something in that exact spot when he had gone to talk to Donny. Or maybe the only one talking was her.
He thought back to the alleyway and that massive disturbance of Mana. He thought that was what he was looking for, but the real thing must not be so pronounced. What he felt must have been her first cast.
He had been keeping his eyes open for the wrong damn thing. It had to be something more subtle, gradual. Making changes over time, like the ones Mark had started to see in Donny.
Mark was pissed. He had missed the signs. She definitely had some form of mind control and was using it on them. Or at least Donny. He had missed it because it was not what he expected.
He felt like such an idiot, the question now was what should he do, and why he shouldn't just deal with her right now while no one was around.
Mark's eyes grew cold and his Mana rushed to his hand, [Force bolt] was a hairs breath away from completing when he let it disperse. He sighed.
He couldn't do that just yet. He couldn't do it for many reasons. However, the main one right now was that he needed her firepower for this rescue mission to work.
Unfortunately, now that he’d confirmed she had the spell and was willing to use it, the deal was off. As soon as this place was cleared and everyone was safe he'd have to confront her.
One of his biggest questions was why hadn't she used the spell on him. He had been her biggest opponent from the beginning, the only thing he could think was that she couldn't. Did that mean she could only control one person at a time? Or were his stats countering her? Was Daphne in danger too?
He had too many questions and almost no answers. One of his biggest ones was, how could she do this with a clear conscience?
One thing was certain she was poison, and he needed to get rid of her.
Bringing up his status he willed half his points into Mana and the other into Prana. Hopefully, that would help against whatever influence she was exerting.
Name: Mark Young (22 - M) Level: 8 Next level: 22/64 Stats: Resistance Aura Mana Prana 41 0 36 (+1, +5) 74 (+5) Unspent stat points - 0 Corruption value: 5.66%
Spells:
Passive Regeneration(Self)[2], Force bolt[4], Prana Pulse[1], Regenerate[1], Draw Corruption[1], Corruption recovery[1].
Mark thought of how much Donny liked Grace and felt sorry for him but she couldn't stay. She had to leave one way or another.
He’d rather be hated by all of them than controlled. He also had to keep in mind that Donny may react badly, but he’d deal with that when it came. He couldn't let on that he knew until then. He didn't want her escaping on her own with Donny. Not before he had a chance to clear Donny of her influence. If Donny still decided to leave with her then fine, at least it would be his choice.
So for now Mark wait and watched.
They were just finishing up testing the spell's limitations when Donny, Daphne, and Ethel returned. Boe came trotting proudly in after them.
They all had grim faces. Donny was the first to break the silence
“Right, we may have a problem”