-1000 Aura
The energy sphere just below his navel seemed to twitch, but that was the only physical effect of unlocking Spells.
Spending so much Aura in one go physically pained him. John had never been the type of guy to splurge big bucks on, well, pretty much anything. His family had never dipped below the poverty line as far as he was aware, since there had never appeared to be any struggle to put food on the table, but they were definitely skint enough that frivolous spending was a no-no. Second hand toys and clothes were a staple of his childhood.
He comforted himself that this was a necessary step. It was for survival. He had to know how Spells worked and what exactly was available to him so he’d be able to deduce the best way to proceed with this ridiculous superpower he’d been given. If it turned out to be a waste, it was a worthy one.
Regardless, he’d have to get used to it eventually. If the cost of increasing a Level kept doubling, he’d eventually be spending tens of thousands at once. The thought made him want to shudder. Wary of the Aura system watching over his shoulder, he forced himself to keep still.
With a mental command, the Aura interface unfurled in his mind, complete with a new menu option.
Increase Vitality (Level 2 -> Level 3): 400 Aura
Increase Strength (Level 2 -> Level 3): 400 Aura
Increase Agility (Level 2 -> Level 3): 400 Aura
Increase Mind (Level 2 -> Level 3): 400 Aura
Increase Arcane (Level 1 -> Level 2): 200 Aura
Increase Talent (Level 1 -> Level 2): 200 Aura
Unlock Skills: 1000 Aura
Unlock Inventory: 10000 Aura
View Spell Menu
Current Aura: 0
John wasted no time mentally slamming the View Spell Menu button. An instant later, more information injected itself into his brain. John blinked at the interface.
Level 0 Spells:
Sense Mana: 200 Aura
Soul Vision: 200 Aura
Sparks: 200 Aura
Purify Water: 200 Aura
Rest: 200 Aura
Level 1 Spells:
Fireball: 500 Aura
Wind Shear: 500 Aura
Electric Shock: 500 Aura
Aqua Shot: 500 Aura
Rock Shield: 500 Aura
Flash Freeze: 500 Aura
Light Burst: 500 Aura
Shadow Stream: 500 Aura
Mana Blade: 500 Aura
Soul Arrow: 500 Aura
Level 2 Spells (LOCKED)
Level 3 Spells (LOCKED)
Level 4 Spells (LOCKED)
Level 5 Spells (LOCKED)
Level 6 Spells (LOCKED)
Level 7 Spells (LOCKED)
Level 8 Spells (LOCKED)
Level 9 Spells (LOCKED)
Level 10 Spells (LOCKED)
Only Level 0 and Level 1 spells unlocked, he thought, wide-eyed. Arcane probably does factor into what Spells I can unlock, then. The same must be true for Skills. But if each Level costs twice as much as the last, I’ll need more than 50,000 Aura to get the best ones.
Knowing he’d been right with his theory gave him some smug satisfaction, but it was somewhat offset by the frustration of seeing he couldn’t actually unlock any of the Spells yet. 1000 Aura just to show him the menu was a horrendous scam. When he found out who designed this system, he was going to be filing a complaint. As long as he didn’t have to interact with the maker directly. Hopefully, they had a support desk he could take his time composing a passive-aggressive email to before chickening out of sending it.
John took in a deep breath, then let it out in a sigh. He was in the living room of the biker couple’s house, watching the world out the window. The burning sky cast a surreal pallor on the residential streets of London, like the entire Earth had been dragged down into Hell. Maybe that was what had actually happened. It would explain what the murderous monsters were, at least, if not the why of it all.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Indecision was rearing its ugly head again. The Level 0 Spells all looked like basic survival stuff, pretty much, but that could be extremely useful in the right circumstances. His brain went into speculation mode, theorising what each Spell did based on its name alone—once again, the system provided him no more information than that.
Sparks, Purify Water, and Rest were all fairly straight forward, though how exactly the Sparks would manifest in reality was more up in the air. The difference between Sense Mana and Soul Vision was the truly interesting question, as far as the Level 0s went. That there was apparently a distinction between soul and mana held some mild implications he’d have to mull over, and the fact one had to be sensed and one had to be seen felt like another clue he could work off of.
Presumably, the monsters invading Earth wielded this “mana” in some manner, and thus that Spell would grant him the ability to feel them coming through something like a radar. He really liked the sound of that. Especially if the Spell was sensitive enough to discern the strength of his enemies before he could lay eyes on them. Avoiding dangerous foes without looking like he was doing so felt like it was going to be a crucial ability, and he decided then and there that Sense Mana was going to be one of the first Spells he unlocked.
Soul Vision also made him curious, though. The implication was that the monsters possessed souls of some kind, and being able to perceive them visually would be a survival ability comparable to being able to light fires, gather drinkable water, and put himself to sleep in rough conditions. Potentially vital, in other words. He imagined it’d be able to do something like easily distinguish monsters from mundane Earth creatures, or grant him some special insight into what his enemies could do.
If that was the case, it would have to be one of the first Spells he unlocked, potentially straight after Mana Sense. The other Level 0 Spells could be left off until they were really needed. Gathering 200 mana wasn’t too had, in theory.
The Level 1 Spells were more immediately tantalising, and their effects weren’t so opaque as the Level 0s. Six elemental magics, two light-based, and another instance of the soul/mana dichotomy. Was the fact that mana was being used for a blade and soul was being used for an arrow a clue of some kind? If it was, he wasn’t smart enough to catch the hint.
John frowned, considering his options. Of course, he didn’t actually have any Aura right now, but he wanted to have a distinct plan of action before he stepped outside the house to hunt down more monsters. Being forced into snap decisions in the heat of the moment could only lead to trouble. Especially when he’d potentially be spending 500 Aura at a time. It was hard when he didn’t know the precise details of the Spells before actually buying them, but he figured it was still best to have an outline to work with.
Fireball was the first one that caught his eye. It was iconic. The classic working of sorcery. It felt like every fantasy story had some variation of a wizardy guy chucking a ball of fire around.
That gave him pause. Would being cliché take away from his coolness factor? Would whatever was working the Aura system roll its eyes and grumble to itself, “man, I’ve seen that one a million times already,” before deducting a million Aura from his tally? He didn’t think it would go that far, and the system surely wouldn’t offer him the Spell if it was considered lame. But he still had to consider that aspect of things. Beyond utility, he had to think about how cool Spells would look, in a fight or otherwise.
Considering how he’d gained Aura for putting on the gaudy red leather jacket, he strongly suspected that edginess was a factor in what the system considered cool. That in mind, he reckoned it might be best to go for that Shadow Stream. He pictured himself surrounded by magical shadows, looking like some kind of wraith, only his glowing red eyes visible.
The idea made his spine want to bend the wrong way from cringe, but he still raised Shadow Stream to the top of his priorities for Level 1 Spells.
Wielding a sword was a pretty badass thing to do, so he figured that Mana Blade would be next on the list. It doubled as giving him an extra data point for his investigation into the differences between mana and soul. For that reason, he decided Soul Arrow should be his third Spell. He imagined it would involve arrows made of shimmering blue light, either fired out of his fingertips or a spectral bow he could summon. That sounded pretty hype.
Factoring in a mixture of coolness and utility, his list ended up like this:
- Sense Mana
- Soul Vision
- Shadow Stream
- Mana Blade
- Soul Arrow
- Fireball
- Electric Shock
- Rock Shield
- Aqua Shot
- Wind Shear
- Flash Freeze
- Light Burst
Rest he’d pick up when he needed to turn in for the night. Sparks could come when he had a need for a warm fire, and the same with Purify Water for when he was thirsty and there was no easier way to find drinkable water.
He’d have to unlock Skills at some point and see what was up with them, too. He’d save up for it when he had some magical capabilities to defend himself secured.
With all that decided, John took a moment to check he had everything he needed, then headed for the front door. Not much had changed with the acquisition of Spells, really.
Farming Aura was still the name of the game.
~~~
John earned 200 Aura in basically no time just by walking around with his hands in his pockets, acting casual like he was out for a light stroll, then looking up at the sky and snarking that it was too bright out. 200 Aura in one go for that seemed a bit much, and he wondered if his outfit really was working.
The Aura went straight into Mana Sense, and he was once again gratified to find his theory proven correct. Mostly.
The new sense it gave him was mildly disorienting at first. There was no human perception for it to map perfectly onto for the sake of explanation, but the closest would be a mixture of vision and sound. With every heart beat, the sphere of energy in his navel would send out what he could only describe as a pulse of energy, like echolocation, and a small slither of his awareness would travel with it. It gave him no understanding of his surroundings, just a vague impression of other blobs of energy within a certain distance of his position. He reckoned it was about 100 metres.
Unlocking the Spell also gave him some new insight into the system, as it now appeared in his menu like this:
Upgrade Mana Sense (Level 0 -> Level 1): 500 Aura
It felt a little cheeky to charge him 500 Aura for an upgrade to only Level 1, but he shook the indignation off since that was how much Level 1 Spells cost anyway. He didn’t spend too much time theorising about it since he was outside and therefore too vulnerable to get lost in thought, but he speculated that levelling up the Spell would give it more range and fidelity.
Even at Level 0, though, it came in as handy as he’d been expecting. Though it wasn’t yet strong enough to grant him insight into the strength of the monsters prowling around, just knowing where they were in relation to him was an incredible boon. It allowed him to time his movements so he wasn’t in danger of running into a monster unexpectedly. He could now scout out his enemies and pick his battles ahead of time, and he made good use of it.
The first two monsters he came across after leaving the biker couple’s house were no-gos; he didn’t feel like picking a fight with a many-legged obsidian skeleton creature the size of an elephant or the three-headed elephant creature that sprayed green mist from its trunks. Mana Sense allowed him to be prepared enough that he avoid them without appearing like he was doing so, casually walking on like he hadn’t seen them. He suspected the sunglasses hiding his eyes came in handy there, too.
He also avoided what seemed to be a pack of monsters close together in a small park. Whatever was going on there, he wanted nothing to do with.
It was only about ten minutes after he’d left the safety of the house he’d shamelessly robbed that he finally encountered something that seemed more manageable. He’d accumulated enough Aura to purchase Soul Vision only seconds before, gaining another 200 Aura in one go when he’d found a rotting monster corpse and quipped that he wished he’d been the one to kill it while shaking his head with disappointment.
He discovered that he could only deploy one Spell at a time, which was annoying. Its method of activation had imprinted itself on his brain like he’d studied it for decades and could thus recall how to do it as easy as breathing. Even without that, it probably wouldn’t have taken him long to figure out what to do.
It didn’t take a genius to think the words Soul Vision as if he was reading them out in his mind, after all.
The Spell overlaid reality with a translucent silhouette of colour that fit the shape of the monster he’d decided to eliminate. What a blue soul meant, he didn’t know, but it made the Labrador-sized slug thing slightly less disgusting to look at, at least. It couldn’t block out the steaming slime trail the putrid creature left in its wake, or the gross oozy innards visible through its semi-translucent mantle, or the bloodshot eyeballs that swivelled around at the tip of its tentacle thingies.
Nor could it hide the fact that the slug monster was clearly dragging itself towards a bloodstain, and its trail led to damp patches where no doubt several more blood stains had been.
John reached over his shoulder and grabbed a golf club.