The barricade trembled against the number of bodies pressed up against it. Daphne and Donny held the gap while Grace and Boe attacked anything trying to climb over and around. Mark stood in between Donny and Daphne. Killing anything that got too close. His breath was ragged and each time he raised his shield to block he felt a little more energy drain from him. At first, it had felt hopeless, with the number of bodies and limbs pushing toward them. But as time went on they started to see an ending in sight. The numbers thinned and now the only thing keeping them going was the knowledge that if they just killed a few more they were home free.

Finally, twenty became fifteen, ten became five, and when Donny brought his ax down on the last zombie’s head they all waited. Waited for the next wave, for more to come pouring out of the walls. But nothing ever did. Slowly, painfully so, they began to relax. Not a single one of them spoke so the silence of the mall was eerie. The droning of the zombies had stopped and the only sound that could be heard was the odd movement of the four Ordinators down below.

Mark swallowed.

“Did we really just survive that?” Grace whispered.

Daphne started giggling and quickly became pearls of full-blown laughter.

Everyone else smiled tiredly.

Moving to the edge Mark watched the tree and its protectors. They weren't moving from the base of the tree. They had lost something when they consumed those corrupted pods. It could be intelligence, but Mark thought it was more along the lines of freedom. They could not leave the tree's side. Therefore, for now, they posed no danger.

“We're not quite done yet, but we should rest for the night,” he said.

Everyone nodded in agreement. Ethel opened the door to the room and everyone piled in. Pushing the workbench up against the door, rather safe than sorry. It wouldn't stop anything but it would give them time to react.

“Is anyone hurt badly I only have a bit of Prana left but I’m about to pass out anyway”

Everyone looked hurt, to be honest, but he only really had enough left to help if it was life-threatening. When everyone remained silent he said.

“Okay give me a couple of hours, I’ll take the last watch. I should be able to heal everyone then”

They agreed. It looked like Donny and Daphne were in the most pain and he wanted to help but he needed to wait for his resources to regen before he could heal their worst wounds.

Everyone went to their own corners. Daphne was taking the first watch. Mark wanted to use this time to rest and fall asleep but quickly found he couldn't. He was too keyed up to settle down.

Flashes of battle kept appearing every time he closed his eyes.

When dreams evaded him he decided to bring up his status.

37 x Corrupted Humanoid cleansed(37 + Sector reward: x4)

[partial experience awarded to (Donovan Nox, Daphne Colt)(16)]

100/100

Level up!

+2 Prana, +2 Resistance

Name: Mark Young (22 - M)

Level: 11

Next level: 73/121

Stats:

Resistance

Aura

Mana

Prana

47 (+2)

0

41

85 (+2)

Unspent stat points - 20

Corruption value: 5.78%

Spells:

Passive Regeneration(Self)[2], Force bolt[5], Prana Pulse[2], Regenerate[2], Draw Corruption[1], Corruption recovery[2], Shape Mana(Force)[4].

He was happy with his distribution but it was finally time to address the Resistance problem. Right now he had to weigh up which was the better choice, more Resistance or relying on [Shape Mana] to cover him. Having more in Prana and Mana would always be a good idea but there was always the chance that something could completely ignore that particular spell, not to mention it was reactionary. As in he had to either have to up before the attack or see the attack coming. It might be okay if he could keep it up 24-7 but right now it would be too intensive on his resources. Moving was his biggest cost, so walking around with it all day was probably impossible.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Perhaps it was better to try a combination, to always put something toward Resistance even if it was a small amount.

Mark quite liked that idea. If he put a single point in each level along with the Resistance he got with his level up, he’d be getting 1 point in all his defenses each level.

Now that wasn't a lot, however, it might be the difference between dying and being mortally wounded.

He hadn't thoroughly tested it yet - nor did he want to - but he was pretty sure as long as he wasn't killed outright he could recover.

Decision made he started applying points. 10 points to Prana, 7 to Mana, and 3 to his Resistance. Hopefully, a couple of extra in Resistance would help later.

Lastly, Mark wanted to find out how his [Force bolt] had changed. So he set up a couple of tests. Firing off a couple into the nearby wall served as a test case. When he was done he found that the spell hit a little bit harder and traveled faster. Overall it was a nice improvement but not all that powerful. This was partly the reason he hadn't noticed immediately. If he had to guess it was probably a 10% increase across the board.

With that done he closed his eyes and tried to get to sleep once more, but still, it would not come.

Sighing and sitting up he kept his eyes closed and started to play around with his Prana again.

This time he started working it around immediately. Stretching and contracting it, warming it up, and moving it into complex shapes. Once more the feeling of pushing himself returned. It was a great feeling, like entering a flow state during one of your best workouts. Or narrowing your focus down to a single task that you love. Mark didn't know how to describe it to someone other than it felt like growth. His breathing became irregular, and time became irrelevant. The Prana became hotter and hotter. It flowed throughout his body warming slowly like boiling water. It felt like his whole body was in a sauna, sweat was dripping down his face.

“Mark!”

Mark felt his trance break and a loud PING sounded in his ears.

His eyes snapped open catching his breath.

Both Daphne and Ethel were staring at him. Boe was sitting nearby, keening softly.

“Everything alright?” he asked, trying to regulate his ragged breath.

“We should be asking that of you, my dear, you sounded like you were hyperventilating” Ethel responded calmly.

Mark took a moment to feel his body out, everything felt fine, even his cuts and scrapes from the battle didn't ache anymore. He felt amazing actually. Checking himself he saw his wound were mostly closed. His passive must have kicked in, but it was more than that.

“Wait how long has it been since the fight?”

Ethel sent eyes toward Daphne and then back to Mark.

“Daphne was just finishing her watch and had woken me when you started Breathing like that. So about three hours.”

He was shocked it hadn't felt like that much time at all. He opened his prompts.

Prerequisite met: 50 attributes in a single Path.

***

Skill acquired: Meditation

All paths require energy, all energy needs a core.

Through conscious manipulation excite your core. Causing an increase in energy creation and by extension core improvement.

100% resource regeneration while the skill is active.

Source: Mediation (+1 Prana, +2 exp points)

“Holy shit!” Mark exclaimed when he saw it. He checked his reserves. In almost three hours he’d regenerated 70 Prana and increased his maximum. This was the skill he’d been wondering about. If people got it then they could improve without having to go out and kill things. Although the efficiency was vastly different. It had taken a full three hours and his Prana had gone up by a single point. Whereas if one was willing to go out and fight they could easily earn a level or two in that time.

He noticed it never limited him to just Prana, he could potentially use this for Mana too.

“What! Mark. Seriously talk to us” Daphne said.

Mark looked around at Grace and Donny, they were asleep. So as not to wake them he called both of them in and told them what he discovered.

“Well that’s really interesting, do you think it would work for Mana?” Ethel asked.

“I don't see why not, do you want me to teach you guys?” he asked.

He fully intended to put this online when he had the chance. It was weird that people hadn't mentioned it already. Though it sort of made sense if you needed 50 points just to discover it. Mark wasn't sure what the average level of people was but if most were hiding and waiting for the army to save them then they couldn't be very high.

“Oh, but you need a stat to be over 50, do both of you have that?” he asked

They both nodded.

Mark was a bit shocked, he had expected Daphne to have the points, but Ethel?

She would have had to have Boe hunt enough Corrupted for the both of them. It also meant she had killed a lot more Corrupted than she had first said.

Trying not to show his surprise he got comfy and told them to do so as well. He’d take the next watch while they tried to get the skill. Mark did his best to describe what he felt when he did it, as well as the goal and what they were trying to accomplish when they meditated.

Unfortunately, neither of them got it by the time the next watch was due. They said they would both continue to practice whenever they had a spare moment.

Confident that he did everything he could to help them he decided to try and sleep once more. This time he conked out as soon as his head hit the sleeping bag.

----------------------------------------

In the morning Mark went around healing the others, he had helped Daphne last night. He had also shaved off 2% of his own corruption. Now he just had to heal Donny and Grace.

They all decided that tackling the tree and its protectors was necessary if they wanted to clear the food court and get past them to Walmart. Grace hadn't argued at all during the discussion and eventually, they came up with a plan. A quick look told them that there were 5 Ordinators again. Also, a couple of normal Corrupted must have wandered in from somewhere because about half a dozen were wandering around. Mark wanted to employ hit-and-run tactics. They never seemed to get too far from the tree and Grace had proven two [lightning bolts] could take down these things. They began around mid-morning. They would all move up as close to the tree as they could get. Grace and Mark would then send everything they had at one of the Ordinators. They managed two and then retreated, Only the normal Corrupted followed, which Donny and Daphne easily took care of. Then when their resources were recovered they moved back in for the last three. Again Grace and Mark took out two of them. This time however the last one followed and Donny, Daphne, and Boe took care of it. It was a battle of attrition because, without spells, these things were really tanky. However, only Donny got hurt with a slash to the neck, which Mark fixed soon after.

That just left the tree. They were a little hesitant to approach because of what Mark saw on the first day. So after a short break to regen, they got ready. Grace unleashed a [lightning bolt] towards the tree. It detonated along the trunk, arcs of electricity winding up into the branches. Right away there was a screech that sounded of crumbling stone. The whole building shook as the blacked bark of the tree began to squirm. Roots and masses of ichor exploded from the ground. The narrow blade-like branches whipped about. With a groan, a crack appeared near the center of the trunk. Opening a twisted horizontal mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. Roots amassed and began to form five trunk-like legs. Extracting itself from the stone and concrete, it began to move. Stumbling toward them.