Even as they continued down the street, Alex asked, “So, how does the other skill actually work, Mine-Not-Yours?”
After a moment, Natasha pulled a short metal bar from her inventory and held it out toward him. “Try to take it.”
“Where did you even get it? What is it?”
She sighed. “Is that important?”
“I guess not…” He reached out and grabbed it.
As he started to pull, her eyes widened in surprise. “How strong are you?”
“Strong enough.” He smiled back.
He was about to jerk the rod free when his Basic Mana Sense told him that something had changed about the rod. Alex simply couldn’t keep a grip on it any more.
And when Natasha pulled, it slipped free, and she held it up triumphantly. “Perfect! Thank you for letting me test that.”
He shrugged. “Happy to help.”
That would be really useful to unstick a blade mid-combat… He’d look into getting a copy of the skill, if it were possible.
They kept going, quickly getting to Alex’s building.
They hadn't absorbed the Basic Mana Manipulation skill yet, each focused on spamming the skills they’d already absorbed, trying to use them in odd or unusual ways.
To Natasha’s delight, she found that she could use Mine-Not-Yours on her shoes, which for some reason counted as a single item.
If she was still when she did it, she couldn’t move at all, but if she lunged forward just before activating the skill, she shot forward as if on rollerblades.
All in all, she was already becoming incredibly mobile.
Natasha’s seeming random movements as they moved got a few funny looks, but no one seemed to think it incredibly novel.
Natasha also seemed to be practicing moving less than what seemed to be the maximum, and that was probably wise. They both were trying to push the edges of the skills that they had.
The Inventory skill had shown that such practice could provide dividends, and the System Notice implied that it would never be easier than in this Apology Tutorial.
Alex, for his part, was really trying to feel how his Advanced Kinesthetics wanted him to be moving, all while using his Analyze skill on everything.
Railings, stairs, doors, people, everything.
Virtually everyone and everything was level NA, which made him briefly curious what the issue had been with him killing a zombie while he was at level 0. Then, a moment’s thought made it obvious. NA and ‘0’ were not equivalent.
NA likely meant that they couldn’t earn experience at all, where ‘0’ made the experience calculation break. But regardless, he ran out of time to ponder as they’d reached his third floor apartment, and he was on detail acquisition duty while Natasha emptied his kitchen, Quick Stepping whenever she could to move around the small space.
Soon enough, they were heading back downstairs.
Alex glanced at the quest yet again and winced. They’d taken much longer than ideal.
Group Quest [Prepare]:
Create a base of operations from which you can survive the end of the world.
Outbreak will begin within:
04 hrs 29 min
Alex and Natasha came out onto the street, outside Alex’s apartment, and they both immediately noticed the difference.
There were far more cars, almost all headed away from the city center and toward the bridges out of town. Some drivers were even diving into the wrong side of the street to get ahead.
That seemed to have started a steady trickle of people doing the same.
As for pedestrians, there were a lot more, and they were moving hurriedly, eyes looking around with obvious fear as they tried to get wherever they were going. A few were surprisingly, obviously armed, melee weapons hanging at their hips.
Alex even saw a few guns openly carried. A quick check in his memory let him know that it was legal but not always looked on well, socially. Something had clearly changed in these people’s minds.
Alex briefly considered putting his dadao on his back, but at least for the moment, he felt like it was more accessible to him from within his Inventory.
The sounds of sirens were not quite so distant anymore, and there were definitely more of them and coming from multiple directions, even if all in generally from the same part of the city.
Almost as confirmation, they had barely moved half a block from Alex’s apartment building before they both got alerts on their phones.
‘Warning, stay indoors if you are able. More information to follow.’
Alex groaned in frustration. They were out of time. “Basic Mana Manipulation, now. We need as full a set of tools as possible.”
Natasha nodded, “Agreed,” and as one they pulled them out and spoke, “Absorb Skill, Basic Mana Manipulation.”
Notice!
By means of a skill orb, you have learned a skill.
Previous Hidden Quest Reward ensures 100% compatibility.
Reward:
Basic Mana Manipulation (Common)
System Addendum:
You have unlocked your Magical Stats.
Basic Mana Manipulation (Common)
Mana is everywhere within the System, now you have the ability to actually interact with it.
Mental and Magical Power and Agility have a marginally greater effect when you are trying to manipulate mana around yourself.
Alex’s eyes opened wide as his Danger Sense was suddenly giving him a feeling of unease.
Apology Tutorial Notice!
Magical Stats unlocked
Racial bonuses will be added at the next Racial Level-up
No previous magical knowledge or aptitude detected
Niether Magical Attributes nor Races count
Setting traits to average levels
Reward:
Magical Stats:
Power: 5
Agility: 5
Fortitude: 5
MP: 50
System Addendum:
Pros have cons and balance is maintained.
Magic calls to Magic.
Be warned and beware.
Good luck.
Alex grit his teeth as a feeling like drinking too hot coffee moved through his whole body. It wasn’t quite agonizing, but it was exceedingly uncomfortable.
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Additionally, his Danger Sense was starting to tingle rather uncomfortably.
He did have a moment of irritation. He knew that he should have kept some stat points back for use on his Magical Stats, but he supposed that he really had no idea when he’d have them unlocked.
He turned to Natasha and saw her on her knees.
If he understood the HP calculations correctly, her Physical Fortitude was only around 7 for the moment. So, the process had probably been much more painful for her.
The people passing them gave her a wide berth, many with hands on their weapons, though nobody drew.
The woman got to her feet a moment later. “That was awful.”
“Yeah. We need to hurry. Something’s wrong.”
She grunted. “Did the System give you a cryptic warning too?”
“Something like that. And my new Danger Sense is… unhappy. Let’s warn the others to wait if they can to absorb their own Basic Mana Manipulation. We may have just made a mistake, but we can’t go back now.”
Grant and Lenka had stopped through their own magic shop and gotten some orbs and books. Apparently, they’d found a rather larger store and had even been able to buy a few potions, which Alex was quite interested to see.
Natasha had done the coordinating, so Alex wasn’t quite sure what had been purchased, but that wasn’t important at the moment.
He now felt like something terrible was coming, and he needed to be ready.
Their Team Sense showed that everyone else was either at the school gym or nearly so. They were the only ones still exposed.
Alex and Natasha exchanged a look that somehow allowed them to come to an understanding as they both took off at a jog.
The already on-edge pedestrians scattered out of their way with little difficulty.
Even as the two of them began to move with increased speed toward the school, Alex received another System notice, and by Natasha’s intake of breath, she got one too.
Hidden Quest [Yes, There’s Magic]:
Complete
Reward:
Starter Spell(s) upon the absorption of ‘Basic Mana Manipulation (Common)’
‘Basic Mana Manipulation (Common)’ absorbed
Choice:
A choice lies before you.
Pick Spells, Three Spell Selection Points Granted.
Apology Tutorial Addendum:
A basic tool when it is needed is better than the perfect tool too late.
Alex’s eyes widened, and not just at the System’s second cryptic warning, adding to his own unease.
Another screen popped up, and Alex was momentarily flummoxed. The list of available spells was massive. Every spell he’d hoped for from the Magic Emporium was there, plus a huge number of combat related spells.
It seemed that every Common Spell would take a single Spell Selection Point, Uncommon Spells two, and Rare cost three points.
They both got down to sorting while continuing their jog.
The school should be less than a few minutes’ trip away at their current pace.
He almost took Create Water, Create Rations, and Detect Unlife. That would cover food and water needs as well as giving him a good way of telling if and when zombies were nearby.
But they had food and water covered for the short term, and they could rove to gather more. They could also likely get those spells from other magic shops if things went on for long enough.
Cleanse and Purify were in the same boat. They would be good to have, but the need was hardly pressing. Besides, if he understood his Attribute correctly he could probably drink sewer water for hydration and not have any ill effects aside from the taste.
Unless someone had a magically infected poop… That was a weird train of thought to be going down, so he dismissed it out of hand.
As his various reasonings ran through his mind, the list of available spells shrank, actively being modified by his internal decision making.
Healing would be great, but he could already heal himself, and he’d rather not take damage to begin with. He’d also rather be able to protect others instead of healing them after the fact, especially in a zombie plague scenario.
That left him looking for offensive, defensive, or stealth skills… maybe a utility spell if he could find the right one?
Stealth made the list because he knew that if this was at all like the zombie apocalypses as depicted in fiction—or in his imagination—they would need to sneak out of their stronghold to find survivors and supplies.
He was sorely tempted by Blood Replenishment and Transfusion, but he had a good line on where he could find those two spells, and this was a chance to gain something that he might not find elsewhere.
Finally, he had it down to what was still a way too long list.
The descriptions were vague to say the least, giving only the most basic information, while implying that the utility of the spells would expand in time.
On the offensive side, Sure Strike (Common) was as simple as it came. Pay mana and the next strike would be more effective.
Fireball (Common) was a classic for a reason and likely had a lot of variability in how it could be used.
Grant will probably take that. There’s no reason to double up even if this would be the best, and I don’t think that it is.
Zap (Common) was similarly classic.
Alex had the feeling that any of these could be practiced and expanded to an insane degree.
It was hard to have too much defense, and so he was also considering the simple Repel Undead (Common).
Keep the undead away. Simple. Easy.
Except that he’d likely need to fight them in order to level, and so the spell would become useless in those scenarios.
Force Shield (Rare), was an obviously powerful spell, and if it had even just been Uncommon he’d have taken it in a heartbeat.
Though… being Rare just means that it likely truly is as amazing as I think it is…
In a similar vein was Force Burst (Uncommon), but that wasn’t quite as interesting as having a semi-permanent defense that he could call upon. Even so, he could see it being absolutely life saving if he was in a press of enemies. Also, if he could learn to direct it, it could become a relatively powerful attack and utility spell.
For stealth, the one that stood out most was Aura of Non-Detection (Rare). On one side, it didn’t seem that useful, but as he’d glanced at it and considered the information given, he’d realized that if he had it active, and was watching his mana pool closely, he would effectively have the System telling him whenever something could be noticing him, as well as its level.
Aura of Self Silence (Common), would have to be used more carefully, as even moving around as quietly as he could would still probably cost his entire mana pool in less than ten minutes, and he wouldn’t really know when he needed it as easily.
But both of those were based on assumptions and the ‘feelings’ he got as he considered them. He might just be making up the notions in his own mind, even if he didn’t think that such was the case.
He was mainly still considering that last one because so, so many fictions involving zombies had characters dying due to some unexpected noise that was entirely their own fault.
He almost imagined just that, but he forced his mind back to the matters at hand.
Lastly, he considered utility spells.
Life Force Boost (Uncommon) was an interesting one. At first glance, Alex had almost mistaken this for a healing spell, but what it actually did was give the target temporary hit points, as well as making them more resistant to negative effects and conditions. It effectively gave them a temporary boost to Physical Fortitude.
He only had a single other spell on his list for consideration, Basic Life Transfusion (Common). Once again, Alex had almost passed it over as being like Life Boost or a variation on healing, except limited to only working on others.
It was also only Common, seemingly because it moved the caster’s own life energy, and required both HP and MP to cast. But that wasn’t actually what the spell was.
Instead, Basic Life Transfusion seemed to allow the caster to send their life energy into a target to either help or harm at the caster’s desire. Moreover, it was only a—
Natasha smiled triumphantly, interrupting his thought process with a proud pronouncement, “I grabbed Force Shield (Rare).”
There was a shimmer in the air off to her left and then nothing to his eyes.
Even so, Alex could sense the mana within the invisible defense, and it felt powerful.
“That’s amazing.”
Natasha’s smile widened. “It feels amazing, too. I can feel how much flexibility there is to the spell, even if I have no idea how to use it, yet.”
Well, there were no two ways about it. He needed to make his choice and confirm it. He’d taken enough time already.
Let’s do this, and pray I don’t regret what I pick.
Pierre decided that he’d made a mistake.
He really wished that there had been anyone willing to group up in his meeting room, but no… everyone else had wanted to go it alone.
He cut and slashed at the undead that got close even as he ran down the street, his breathing heavy.
He’d chosen slow zombies. He had to admit that they were slow when they started, but then they began fighting each other, and the winners did not come out slow after enough victories.
They’re leveling off of each other as well as human victims. That’s hardly fair!
Cut.
Someone screamed for help, causing Pierre to look over and see a woman trapped in a car, already surrounded by six of the slow ones.
They wouldn’t attack each other if there was a human in relatively easy reach…
He’d chosen this apocalypse because he wanted to be able to help people.
He didn’t hesitate.
He kept running.
I can’t help anyone if I’m dead.
A block later, he tripped, scrambling back to his feet only to look back and see an abomination.
It looked like a ball of undead heads, the necks on the bottom grotesquely extending to push it forward even while those on the sides lanced out to snatch up zombie and—less frequently—human alike, each kill being drawn in and added to the rest.
Pierre only froze in horror for a brief moment, but that was enough for a quicker zombie that he hadn’t noticed to tackle him to the ground.
It didn’t even have time to properly maul him before the head-ball rolled over them both, pulling them into the growing mass of undead flesh.
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