The shrill sound of an electronic beeping began to pull Mark from his trance. When he had begun, he found the Prana in the area to be thin and slow to respond. He quickly figured this was because there were no abundant sources of life nearby, save the four of them. Be it a person, plant, or animal they all seemed to increase the Prana in the area, the more there was around him the easier it was to fall into a deeper [Meditation].
He noticed that there was a hard limit on how fast the skill could regenerate his Prana reserves, but he also notice something else.
The quality of energy in the area seemed to matter to the skill, but he couldn’t figure out why. His regeneration remained the same constant 100%, but the feedback from the skill told him that he wasn’t pushing himself. The sensation of growth never burned in his chest.
Mark opened his eyes and stopped pulling in the surrounding Prana.
Source: Mediation (+1 Prana, +2 exp points)
Mark looked at the small prompt, up until now he had mostly dismissed them, but maybe that was wrong. The system was telling him something. His reserves had grown and it was telling him exactly how much.
He thought that it was just the amount of time he spent in [Mediation] that mattered, and in some ways that was true, but what if it wasn’t only a quantity thing? Maybe the quality of surrounding energy affected how much one grew. It would make sense. He’d been using the skill out here in the middle of nowhere for around 5 hours and his Prana had gone up by just a single point, but when he’d used it back at camp, he’d go up by 2 or even 3 points in a couple of hours.
So the more energy in your surroundings the faster your growth? almost like the stronger one got, the more resistance they needed to feel to continue growing. Progressive overload.
It was a theory he’d need to explore, but as he took in the room he saw Sam looking at her tablet with worry on her face.
“What’s going on Sam?” he called out to her.
Jonathan was still deep in [Meditation] and Mark shook him slightly to wake him up.
“It looks like we are going to have to make our own way back,” Sam said.
Mark's eyes snapped to her face to see if she was joking.
“The message is brief but it seemed the strange movements they saw the other day were the Corrupted amassing. Last night they attacked the wall and during the early hours of the morning, it fell. Luckily because they saw it coming they had enough time to get everyone to the secondary wall. Apparently, when morning arrived they were able to reclaim the first wall. Unfortunately, a good deal of infrastructure was damaged in the battle. Right now they can’t afford to send us a ride home”
Mark's heart dropped.
Jonathan had gotten up from his sitting position and they both questioned her.
“Did they say anything else? What about the knights?”
“Sam what about Ethel?”
She flipped the tablet over to them, shaking her head. The message was short and written hastily. It was exactly as she said, giving them the gist of the situation but nothing more.
“Can we respond?”
“Not right now, we're lucky we even got that message, as I said we were going to have to wait for tomorrow at noon to get an answer. Someone must have seen our message as it came in and chosen to respond right away”
Both of them calmed down and they all fell into a long silence.
Cara was awake and watching them all with a strange expression.
Jonathan frowned to himself and was the first to speak.
“...Well then there's no use hanging around here anymore, is there?”
The room fell silent once more.
Mark looked at Sam and asked.
“How long would it take to get there on foot?”
She had a thoughtful look on her face and brought up the maps.
“Factoring in a steady pace and not too many detours… we could make it back by tomorrow evening. But we’d have to leave within the next couple of hours”
Cara suddenly sat upright sharply.
“Wait, you aren’t thinking of going out there, are you? It's the middle of the night traveling right now is way too dangerous!”
They didn’t answer right away and then Sam went forward and lowered herself to sit next to Cara.
“Right, we know, which is why we were thinking it though, sweety. We all have people back home we want to protect and if traveling through the night means we can do that then we at least need to weigh our options”
“They’ll kill you…”
Sam paused but Jonathan answered for her.
“That's a distinct possibility, but just like you need to find the Prophet, we want to make sure our people are safe, plus we are pretty strong so I think we can handle it”
Jonathan said this matter of factly but Mark could see a certain excitement on his face, at the thought of challenging the night.
Mark had his map open and was looking at all the open ground between them and home. It looked like a straight shot through the city, it probably wouldn’t have taken more than two hours by car before the fall.
Now? Every inch of the map held invisible dangers and night would only make it harder. Their only saving grace was that they could still avoid green areas easily enough, so they would mostly be traveling through weaker areas.
The thing was it was doable, maybe slightly suicidal but doable. If they took small breaks along the way and traveled with the intention to evade, then he thought they had a chance.
Mark was just coming out of his own thoughts when heard the end of Sam's conversation with Cara.
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“If you want we could take you with us…”
“Sam… A word,” Jonathan said.
She came over and in a hushed voice said.
“I know it's dangerous, but what do you want me to do? She's alone out here and it looks like she’s heading in the same direction as us”
Jonathan just had an amused look on his face.
“Good, but that's not what I was going to say. The world has changed and we have to adapt, we can’t protect everyone, they need to be able to do that themselves. So as long as she knows what she’s getting herself into, I’m good with it. No, what I wanted to do was call a vote on this, but it should be unanimous. If we decide to do this, there can’t be any hesitation or we’ll die. I’ll go ahead and say right now I’m for leaving.”
Some tension dropped from Sam’s shoulders and she nodded, turning to look at Mark.
Mark was worried about Daphne and while traveling back right now was dangerous, he wasn’t willing to wait here till tomorrow when there was a chance they could make it back in time to lend a hand. He had no problem with Cara coming along, he’d even keep an eye on her, but what Jonathan said held weight. It was a difficult reality but everyone, no matter their age or disposition, would need to know how to defend themselves. Mark wanted to help as many people as he could, but soon enough they would need to stand on their own or this world would eat them alive.
In this case, Cara had already been doing her best to survive, and with her magic, she’d at least be able to escape, so he had no problem with it.
Both of them were looking at Mark now, waiting for a response.
“My vote is to take our chances and make the journey… With regards to Cara as long as she wants to come, I say let her.”
Sam brought her thumbnail up to her lips and seemed lost in thought for a moment. She was muttering more to herself than them but Mark could hear her saying.
“Looking at this objectively we are working with limited information. We don’t know how the safe zone is doing and what will happen tomorrow night. If the settlement gets hit again will they be able to hold out? No, right now it’s best to assume the worst and hope for the best… This means that if we want to make it before tomorrow’s nightfall, then this is the only option... We should do it, I vote yes to going”
Her voice rose to address them on the last sentence.
Jonathan got up and said.
“Right then if we are going to do this let's get ready to go now, more time is always good”
Mark saw seriousness there but he could also see Jonathan's restrained excitement at the thought of taking on the unknown.
Sam was driven and having a purpose gave her strength. If Mark was honest he sat somewhere in between. He wanted to get to the safe zone for his own purposes but at the same time, he welcomed the challenge.
Sam went over to talk to Cara.
In the meantime, Mark opened the system store and searched through it. Unfortunately, explosives were still a hot commodity but he did find one thing that he liked.
It was a back scabbard that was secured in place by a set of straps. He could then strap the staff to his back diagonally. It even had quick-release buckles so that he could pull it out, in the heat of battle.
Mark was just about to finish up when he spotted two simple combat knives that came as a set. Looking up he noticed Cara had her shotgun again but no close-range weapons. They were 13 Sp for the set, shrugging his shoulders he bought them, the harness, and a couple of granny smith apples to snack on.
In total, he spent 23.5 Sp. Biting into the apple Mark went forward and took out the knives. Cara and Sam saw him coming. He dropped down and offered her the weapons.
He almost snickered at the image. If he had offered a kid he barely knew a set of knives a couple of weeks ago, he'd probably have the police called on him by an enraged parent. Now it was completely welcome, necessary even.
“Whether you are coming or not these will be useful. Be careful though, they say that if you don’t know how to handle them you will end up doing the most damage to yourself. Practice with them”
Cara bit her lip like she was unlearning years of teachings and warnings about knives from her mother.
“Thanks,” she finally said taking them. They had a sheath and small clip to fasten them onto one's waistband.
Taking another bite of his sour delight, Mark moved to put on the harness and after some struggling and rearranging he managed to get it in place. The staff sat firmly against his back. By then, they were all ready.
As they stood at the exit of the safe pastry shop Jonathan did a final call.
“Okay, it's a clear night so we try and make do with the moonlight. Mark I’ll call if we need it.”
Mark held a thumbs up as he was working his way through his second apple.
“Sam nothing loud if you can help it, Cara stay near us and focus on your surroundings, your only job is to avoid the Corrupted”
Cara had decided to join them, for what reason she was risking her life on people she'd met hours ago, Mark couldn't say but the determination to get to her family was admirable.
Jonathan opened the door to the street and they moved out into the night with Mark bringing up the rear.
As they moved through the empty streets Mark was glad they had cleared these out during the afternoon but as they got further and further from the safehouse Corrupted began to show up with more frequency. On more than one occasion they had to duck into alleyways to avoid the bands of roaming Ghasts. Their night vision would spot the group in moments if they were out in the open. As time went on Mark noticed everyone was adapting and their pace was picking up.
At one point Jonathan looked back and noticed his eyes glowing that familiar dull red. Mark could only assume he had earned some kind of dark vision skill because he was moving as if it were daylight. Sam had gentle air currents surrounding her and Cara grabbed onto the back of her clothes.
Mark realized he need to adapt and that perhaps there was a way he could do something similar. When [Sculpt Mana] expanded out into the area Mark got a perfect image of everything under it. Well everything living that was, he could tell exactly where everyone was near him in relation to himself. It's how he prioritized targets but what about objects? They gave off no Prana whatsoever, so how did he track that?
It had to be Mana. If Prana couldn’t help him see the inanimate then he needed something that interacted with the environment. Luckily Mana did just that.
Triggering the spell, he expanded a near-invisible pane of force around them. Then, he imagined pulses of Mana expanding out with the intent to gather information from the surroundings and return what it found, to give him an image of what was under his construct. Kinda like sonar or the way Chris and Sam used Air magic.
This turned out to be a huge mistake. The Mana expanded out and bounced around his construct in growing and eclectic patterns. What it returned was sensory overload as the Mana dutifully returned all the information it had gathered.
Every single object in his surroundings returned all their information at once in every way he could perceive it. Perfect 3D representations from every direction filled his mind. Every smell in the area assailed his nose at once. Worse still he could taste the very air, dirt, and stale puddles of water. Feel all their varying textures brush his skin at once.
Mark had to stop it immediately or risk losing his dinner. The human brain wasn’t designed to see the world in that much detail or at least he couldn’t handle it right now.
Mark had to take a step back and look at the problem from another angle. If it was too much, then he needed a blocker to focus the stream of information.
Mark’s thoughts moved to his Resistance, it was connected to everything in here, that is how he transferred his Prana in the first place, could he control it enough to limit what information returned? He sent a tendril of Mana running through his Resistance with the intent to gather.
The information came rushing forward but this time he allowed his Resistance to act as a filter, drawing in only the information he needed. The connection between him and the surrounding space strengthened as his Resistance filled the space between the two. Mana churned in the surrounding space and finally, after narrowing the channel of information he could feel the exact shape of the road ahead, with every pitfall and bump below his boots, along with every scrap of discarded paper, broken bottle, and dented rubbish can.
The detail of the feedback he got from his spell widened like he’d had one of his eyes closed the whole time.
He thought he had control over this space before but now he saw things with even more clarity, this built on it. One way was not better than the other but they seem to work in perfect concert to give him a clearer picture. The best part was that it took no extra concentration, his Resistance seemed designed for this and handled it easily.
If he closed his eyes he would have no problem walking anywhere under his Construct. It took a little getting used to because it was weird to only be able to see a tiny portion of the world at once but the detail was incredible.
In their current situation, it was invaluable allowing Mark to navigate the dark streets with the party but there was more to this, and as soon as he had the time he'd figure it out.