《The Dungeon Lord of Luck》 Chapter One The physiological and genetic effects of mana exposure on an unawakened species remain poorly understood. Historical records from the Day of Awakening indicate that a small subset of the human population¡ªapproximately five percent¡ªexhibited adverse reactions when exposed to heightened ambient mana, resulting in transformation into what have been termed "abominations." The prevailing hypothesis has been that these individuals possessed an inherent genetic defect, predisposing them to a maladaptive response to mana, which in turn triggered rapid and uncontrolled mutations. However, this explanation is insufficient, as it fails to account for key observations¡ªmost notably, the apparent lack of stochasticity in the resulting transformations. Rather than exhibiting random, chaotic mutations, these individuals undergo structural changes that appear to follow a discernible pattern, producing morphologically stable entities rather than disorganized masses of tumorous growths and deformities. I propose that rather than a pathological genetic failure, these transformations represent an unintended consequence of an individual possessing a high affinity for a specific mana concept. When exposed to raw, unprocessed mana of that concept¡ªand without system intervention, as it was still undergoing initialization¡ªsuch individuals lack the necessary physiological adaptations to regulate the abrupt mana infusion. This results in a forced bloodline awakening. However, in the absence of a sufficiently pure bloodline, the transformation proceeds in an unstable and incomplete manner, continuing until a point of equilibrium is achieved between the body¡¯s biological processes and the introduced mana. ¡ª Extract from a lecture by Dr Elliot Barnes, Doctor of Applied Mana and System Theory, delivered in September 2042. Chapter One Day of awakening - 21:32 The first thing I felt was the headache, like a pressure pressing down on my skull almost guaranteeing that it would turn into a full-blown migraine. Looking across the van from where I sat wrapped up in multiple duvets. It had been three months since I had started my adventure with van-lifing and while I had made some progress with fitting out my van it was a long way off looking like some of the ones I had seen on Instagram. Mostly I had been focused on the Van itself, giving it an extreme level of deep clean, requiring me to disassemble large parts of the Van including fully removing the chairs and dash, going over the chassis with a fine tooth comb, removing any rush and welding in reinforcement strips as required and giving the van a full going over until I was confident that I would get at least five years of no issues life out of the vehicle and that I could fix and service anything mechanically wrong that wouldn¡¯t need a profession shop to do. Once I was happy with the physical state the van was in, I had turned to the interior. up until that point I had been sleeping in a sleeping bag on a borrowed camping bed and so the first upgrade to the van had been to install a raised sleeping area to which I could put a proper queen size mattress and while the realistic, logical part of my brain had said that a single would have been fine and it would have freed up space for other things, a less rational deluded part of my mind has insisted that we might be able to one day convince a girl to spend the night in the van and while as ridiculous as the idea of any girl taking one look at the interior of the van containing nothing but a mattress on a raised wooden shelf surrounded by power tools and duct tap and not sprinting away was, we still outvoted the logical part of the brain two to one. But other than that, you might have thought that little work had been done to the interior, but this was mostly because I had spent my time putting up internal framing and running the electrical wires. I was planning to spend this month¡¯s pay check on the insulation I would need and then I would be able to clad the interior and make it look more like a home and less like a workman¡¯s van that a homeless man was sleeping in despite how accurate that might of been. And so now with autumn in its final days, combined with the lack of installed insulation, the currently dissembled diesel heater that I was modifying before installing and the fact that my paraffin heater would kill me with carbon monoxide if I turned it on without the door being open, letting the cold in and defeating its purpose, I was left with the remaining option available to students the world over and stole all my parents spare duvets, quilts and blankets and now sat in a cocoon of warm where I could watch pirated movie and TV box sets that I had downloaded onto an old laptop. And while it was not the greatest of setups, It didn¡¯t really bother me and if I ever started to feel down and just had to remember that I was saving one thousand fucking pounds a month that would have been spent on rent alone, I just had to put up with this for five years, five more years and I would have saved over sixty thousand pounds if everything went right, and I had plans for that money, boy did I have plans. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. But before all my grand plans, I first I had to solve my more immediate problem, do I suffer through the headache but staying warm and in bed or do I venture out of my quilt cocoon and into the harsh coldness of my van in search of pain killers. Be in pain or be cold, one of humanity''s eternal battles was resolved when the lights in the van went out and I swore. ¡°The fucking breaker tripped again.¡± Reaching for my phone to use as a flashlight, I swore once again, as I realised my phone battery had also died. ¡°Oh, for God¡¯s sake phone, is it too much to ask that you hold a charge for more than four hours, I know that you are going on seven years old now, but I have only had you of those years so I feel I am owed a little effort on your part. I would throw you away if it wasn¡¯t for the fact that new phones cost money and you were free.¡± The inanimate piece of plastic and aluminium refused to respond so I tossed it to the side and made a terrible decision and got out of bed. The van was freezing, not literally freezing, it was still a couple of degrees above zero this late at night despite being so close the winter. And I made general shivering motions as a felt my way across the van to where my camping stove was setup where I knew I would at least find some matches while trying to trip over or worse get splinters from the rough loose wooden panels I was temporarily using as flooring. I failed tripping over the same one I always did, but managed to catch myself and successfully made it over to the camping stove and better than matches, I found a lighter. Light flared into the van, leaving light spots in my eyes, as I had held the lighter to close to my face as I focused on getting it to light. Finding and struggling into my coat and shoes made difficult due to the combination of shivering from the cold while also trying not to set my coat alight from the lighter I was holding in my off hand to see. In the end I gave up on the lighter, putting it into my pocket and just tied my shoes laces by feel and then open the van door and stepped out into... darkness? Looking around as it was almost as dark out here as it had been in the van, confused I look up to where I knew a pair of streetlights that should have been illuminated the road next to the yard that I was semi-officially As-long-as-noone-asked parked up at. But illuminating, they were not. ¡°Huh, must be later than I thought¡± I knew that the streetlights turned off at eleven, but I hadn¡¯t realised that it had gotten that late. Annoyed, I pull my lighter back out and with what little light it provided on this apparently moonless night I made my way over to where I had plugged my van in for power. The land I was parked up on was once the site of a smallish warehouse that had been torn down to make way for something else, but the project got cancelled after the tear down and the only source of active power on the whole yard was at the power junction box near the entrance to the yard. I was pretty sure that the junction box was actually owned by the electric company and the single power socket within was meant as a service socket or for testing or something and it was only capable of supplying just enough power to power some cheap LED strips for that I used for light and to power my laptop as long as I didn¡¯t push it to do much more than watch videos, anymore and it would trip the breaker. Apparently that second Fast and the Furious movie had been too exciting for it. Frowning I looked down at the padlocked electrical cabinet that containing the junction box. Luckily the hinge side had rusted though and so it now just opened the other way, I had even added a little latch to keep it closed to protect it from the weather, so the electrical company should be thanking me really. Reaching in I flicked the breaker back into the on position, but it just flicked right back, switching the breaker switch back and forth without and success, I looked back up at the unpowered streetlights and then to the pitch-black houses around me. ¡°Or maybe there is a fucking blackout going on, you known what fuck it, let just go to bed, got nothing else really planned for tonight.¡± ¡°¡°Help, someone help!¡± A feminine cry for help pierced the nights air, starting me. ¡°Oh, what the fuck now?¡± Chapter Two The heightened aggression observed in recently transformed Mana Abominations is likely a consequence of the physiological and psychological stress incurred during the transformation process. This, combined with a probable reduction in cognitive function due to the activation of multiple incomplete and likely inferior bloodlines, results in a regression to more primitive, instinct-driven behaviours. These behaviours primarily manifest as heightened aggression and extreme territoriality, consistent with stress-induced responses observed in other primitive species. ¡ª Extract from a lecture by Dr Elliot Barnes, Doctor of Applied Mana and System Theory, delivered in September 2042. Chapter Two Day of awakening - 21:52 Locking the gate to the yard behind me, I set off at a slow job in the direction the scream had come from, not from any sense of heroism but out of a desire to prevent whatever was happening from escalating and someone calling the cops, last thing I needed was the police sniffing around and asking questions, questions such as who are you? why are you and your van parked up on this abandoned building site? Why are you out here at this time of night? Do you live near here? And while I¡¯m not doing anything illegal, well to the extent that I would get arrested at any rate I would still rather not have to answer such questions. And so, with nothing but self-serving intentions I set off into the darkness, Luckily now that the light spots that I had caused myself from the lighter had faded away, my eyes were able to start slowly adapting the darkness and I was able to make out the ¡°Help, Somebody, anybody help!¡± Oh, for fuck¡¯s sake, woman. Keep it down¡ªpeople are trying to sleep. I put on a burst of speed as I bore down on the corner of the street from where I could hear the feminine screams coming from, hoping to get there with enough time to calm down and de-escalate the situation. But rounding the corner I was brought to a halt by a tableau that was presented to me. A rather burly man was lying on his back scrambling backwards wearing nothing more than a dressing gown that was such a vivid shade of pink that I could even make it out even in this level of darkness, it was his panicked high pitch cries that I had mistaken for a woman. The man was holding his arms out and now appeared to be frantically trying to calm something down the twang of fear still audible in his voice. ¡°Claire please! Calm down¡± A growl from the darkness started to fill in the blanks about what was going on. Great, someone¡¯s dog has flipped out, probably due to the sudden power cut surprised it, triggering a panic attack and making it lash out. ¡°Honey please, it me Mark, your husband. Don¡¯t you recognise me?¡± Another growl echoed out of the darkness in response. ¡­Okay, I¡¯m out, I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on here and I don¡¯t want to know, what a man and his possible dog/wife do in the sanctuary of their own home is their business, I mean if a man can marry his car, why not his dog¡­ I¡¯m going to have to call the police aren¡¯t I¡­ Realisation that whatever was going on was most likely some sort of crime and I was going to have to get involved with the police, Maybe I can say that I was just taking a late-night stroll because the power was out and then giving them my old address, wait my phone batteries are dead how am I mean to call¡­ My thoughts were interrupted, as out of the darkness what looked like a massive dog padded out into sight, as low constant growl rumbling near constantly before rearing back onto the back legs towering over the now whimpering man. ¡°Please Claire, I lov-¡° The man¡¯s last words were cut short as the massive dog thing shot down and clamped its jaws around the man¡¯s neck, massive forepaws seemed to grip his shoulders before the head yanked upwards tearing out the man¡¯s neck. I stood there stunned; my mind blank from shock as all I could do was stare at the scene before me. For what felt like eternity the creature and I just stood there, and the creature just stared off into the distant, taking deep panting breaths, arterial blood gushing out in a fountain from the body at its feet, the man dead within seconds but the heart still fighting on. And then as I watched on the creature seemed to freeze, the rest of its body dead still as its head slowly turned to face me, its bloodshot eyes constricting down into needle like points and my brain finally started working again. NOPE! I was already in a dead run back the way before my brain really had time to process the realities of what just happened, but one thing was for sure. That was a motherfucking Werewolf!!! Still accelerating as I reached the street corner, I threw out my hand grabbing against the wall, using it to help transfer my momentum so that I could round the corner as tightly as possible. This one action may have been the one decision that saved my life that day, as in the moment, just as I made it round the corner I felt the wind on the back of my head as though something just a hair¡¯s breadth away brushed pass followed by a crash as something crashed into a car parked on the corner. Stolen story; please report. Oh shit!, fuck fuck shit! Not looking back, because only idiots look back, I just about made it about a hundred meters at a dead sprint, before at the sound of scrabbling claws tearing at the pavement behind me I dove between two parked cars just as the Werewolf like creature, slipped pass, running on all fours before failing to properly stop and turn, tripping it into a tangled roll. I didn¡¯t stop to see why it seemed so uncoordinated with-it limbs and instead darted diagonally across the street and over another parked car to a padlocked gate which was my destination. With practiced quick hands, I slammed in the code into the gate lock and wrenching it open, I just barely slipped though before the creature crashed into the gate slamming closed while knocking me to ground. The gate I had just made it through with only moment to spare, was the side access gate to the fabrication yard that I worked at and was built into a foot deep wall made of the old Victorian red bricks and probably dated back to then, it was over two meters tall, topped with case iron spikes and ran a full ring around the property. Scrambling up, a vicious, triumphant grin spread across my face as I stared down the creature its clawed hands gripping the gate, trying to tear it loose, an aggressive snarl the only sound it was making. My grin turned into something feral and with adrenaline still coursing through me I snarled back at it. ¡°It not going to work you fucker! I made that gate, and it is made with 300 fucking millimetres hardened steel rods, you would need a plasma cutter to even attempt to cut it loss.¡± It had stopped shaking the bars now and just stared at me slightly, its bloodshot, pinprick eyes focused on me as I yelled at it, ¡°So why don¡¯t you go fuck off, you mother fucking piece of-¡° In one fluid motion, the creature bent its knees and the slowly launched itself up, easily clearing the spikes on top of the over two-meter-high wall and landing down almost softly behind me. ¡°No!¡± I spun around facing the creature as it slowly turned to face me and doing the only thing I could do, trapped against the gate, as it went to leap at me. I grabbed the closest thing I could find which was a piece of rebar that we used for temporary fencing, and I swung it with every ounce of fear-induced adrenaline I bring to muster and caught it in the side of it head and it lunged for my neck. I realised the creature couldn¡¯t have weighed much as with a high-pitched squeal of pain, I was able to knock it to the side and bolt pass it, vaulting over the different piles of I bolted deeper into the yard. A dumber person might have tried for a second swing to see if they could finish off the down creature, but this would of completely ignored the fact that I had just swung full force with a full length of rebar, to the side of the head, which would have killed an adult man, only knocked the creature to the side and I am 90% certain that was only because of the weight different between us. So yeah I ran. Dumb of not, one thing was for certain was I was now trapped in the yard with it and if I didn¡¯t come up with something quick, it was going to catch me and that would be the end for me. All the tools and anything useful as a weapon were securely locked up and my work keys were sitting in my van, the only advantage that I could think of as I weaved and vaulted over piece of scrape, metal storage and random pieces of equipment, was the fact that the wolf creature didn¡¯t seem very steady on its feet, almost as though it wasn¡¯t used to its own body and was in reality the only reason why I was still alive. And while it would most likely quickly adapt to what ever the issue was, it was still an advantage and as I rounded the corner to a storage container and saw what lay beyond, I realised a plan in which I could make use of that advantage, A very suicidal plan, but also my only plan. Skidding to a halt, I turned my back to what I had just seen, backing up until I could feel it pressing against my back and raise the now slightly bent rebar above my head I yelled at the oncoming monster. ¡°WELL, COME ON YOU PIECE OF SHIT! LET¡¯S FUCKING DO THIS!¡± Whether it was from my shouting or just the fact it saw me their standing still directly in front of it, the monster let out a deep squeal and dropping down onto all fours, it dipped it head down and charged. The was no fear or panic as I stood my ground, there was just feeling of adrenaline, the pounding of my heart, the ever-present headache I had since this had all started and the certainty that I would either succeed or I would die. And as the monster closed into to about three meters from me, I throw the rebar forward aiming for it face and dived to the side, not looking to see if I hit or not. I landed on the ground and waited for the monster to jump on me, to feel it teeth grab onto my neck and ripe it out just like it had done to that man, I would bleed out almost instantly and I would feel very little pain and as the seconds dragged on into eternity I closed my eyes and waited patiently for my death. With the sound of something crashing into and impaling itself followed by a pained squeal, the world sped up and forced myself to my feet, staring at the thrashing creature where it had run head long into the forklift that I was standing in front of it, my plan had worked. I knew I stood no chance against it and running out of time I came up with the desperate plan of using its own strength against it, the teeth of the fork had been modified from the usual wide teeth used to move palettes around and instead had a row of most spike like teeth similar to a normal fork to make it easier to move different length of metal bar around. And by standing in front of them, I blocked them from it view, shouting full pulled it focus and by at the last moment throwing the rebar I hoped to cause it to flitch or look away, so that it wouldn¡¯t track me as I dived out of the way, and it would just carry on, driving the spikes through its body. My victory was short lived though as even as got up, it had already started to push itself off the spikes. ¡°Oh no, you fucking don¡¯t!¡± As I charged forward, try to shove and kick it deeper into the spikes, but it out matched me in strength and with more pained grunts and squeal it was slowly pushing itself off the spikes. ¡°No No No, this can¡¯t be happening, I beat you!¡± Panic started to set in as I looked around for anything that my help and my eyes locked onto the strap used to secure stuff to the forklift, still attached to one side of the forklift where somebody and forgotten to put it away. Out of ideas and out of desperation I grabbed for it and slung it around the creature that had almost pushed itself free attaching it to the mounting point on the other side of the forklift. And locking eyes with the monster, I started to work the ratchet, tightening the strap. The monster fought as best it could, but the ratchet kept working away, bit by bit, slowly tightening and pulling the monster forward. After that, the outcome was inevitable. By the time the strap pulled as tight as it would go, all the fight had left the monster, pressed up against the forklift, it face forced to the side, all it could do was let out long, pitiful whines, the kind a dog that was in pain would make, the madness was gone from it eyes, only pain and confusion remained as I grabbed a heavy iron pipe and climbed up to stand above its head. I brought the pipe down¡ªone, two, three¡ªand with the fourth blow, the back of its head finally caved in and the monster or whatever it was went silent. Chapter Three Extensive investigation of DNA, government records, and available ancestry information has yielded no unifying or common denominator that could link individuals who underwent forced mana awakenings. Claims suggesting higher incidence rates among specific groups or ethnicities are entirely fabricated and demonstrably false. Our findings indicate that those who experienced forced mana awakenings were affected in a manner consistent with randomness, with no identifiable hereditary or demographic pattern. A key indicator supporting this conclusion is that even when individuals were in close physical proximity¡ªsuch as within the same household or even the same room¡ªthe effect did not manifest across multiple family members, such as between parent and child or among siblings. Notably, documented cases include instances where only one individual from a set of identical twins, triplets, or higher-order multiples was affected. This strongly suggests that a common genetic factor is not at play. More intriguingly, the forced mana awakening predominantly affected humans, along with a small number of high-intelligence primates. This observation alone warrants further study, as it may offer insight into the underlying mechanisms of mana interaction with biological systems. Furthermore, the absence of cases involving pregnant individuals is a significant finding, the explanation for which should by now be self-evident. ¡ª Extract from a lecture by Dr Elliot Barnes, Doctor of Applied Mana and System Theory, delivered in September 2042. Chapter Three Climbing down, I lowered myself to the floor using the pipe as support and lean back against the tire of the forklift, my head resting in my hands, as the adrenaline fled my system and I focused on not going into shock, trying to process everything that had just happened as it came crashing down. Several minutes of slow deep breaths and I was able to get a hold of myself, gaining control of the shaking and start the get my thoughts in order. First thing I realised was that I could see, by which I mean that there was enough light to see by, it wasn¡¯t day light bright, but equivalent to the yards lights being back on, but then I realised that I had been able to see for quite a while, I just hadn¡¯t noticed due to the whole running-for-my-life from the werewolf monster situation. This reminded me of the werewolf monster thing¡¯s existent, and I spun around to check on the monster cursing myself that I hadn¡¯t confirmed it was dead, just trusted that the dent in its head and the fact that it had stopped moving meant it was dead. ¡°Fuck¡¯s sake, Jack. That is how idiots get themselves killed., just because something would have killed a human, doesn¡¯t mean it can kill a monster, it might be able to regenerate or maybe it is an undead, you don¡¯t fucking know.¡± But looking at the creature it was definitely dead, its eyes had rolled up into the back of its head and it had taken on that cold stillness that living things just couldn¡¯t mimic. As I contemplated cutting off its head to be sure, Supernatural-style, I looked the creature over and for the first time, without it being concealed in darkness or from adrenaline- and panic filled eyes I could really see it and I had been quite mistaking about the werewolf part. While it only had a small number of parts that could be considered wolf like, such are it legs and muzzle, but the muzzle ended with flat pig¡¯s nose and it ears were more pig like than wolf, it was also completely bald, without any hair. Or rather, it was covered in skin¡ªnormal human skin. In fact, the body mostly human and had for the most part the naked body of a fit and healthy, young athletically attractive woman. He said he was its husband¡­ ¡°So, you must be Claire, whatever the hell happened to you?¡± Suddenly very disturbed by what I was looking at, I tried not to throw up at the knowledge that I had just killed, maybe murdered someone and wondering if I should get her down or at least cover her body to give her some dignity. Okay, I really need to call the police, no hiding this. I think there¡¯s still an old landline phone in the office connected to the fax line, that should still work as it gets its power from the land line, not the mains, going to need to break a window to get in, but considering the circumstance I think it is warranted. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. As I tried to remember which window would be best to break into and climb through, I was momentarily distracted by the fact the whatever was illuminating the surroundings was slowly fading between colours. Frowning, I looked up to see what was providing the light and was stunned by something that, at any other time, would have been the highlight of my life, something that I had wanted to see ever since I had seen it in a book as a young child so much so that I had badgered my parents every year to take me up to Scotland to see it, but each time we had gone we had missed it or it was to over cast, leaving me sad and depressed for the rest of the entire trip, until it got so bad they refused to take me anymore. They told me that if I wanted to see it, I¡¯d have to save up and go to Antarctica myself. That moment had defined and guided my life ever since. An Auroa blazed overhead. Even now, with the dead corpse of a woman-turned Man-Wolf-Pig monster that I had just maybe murdered at my side, I was in awe of its beauty. The rainbow of colours that shone with such intensity that it reflected down onto the land below. And as I stared up, the headache in my head seemed to spike and a box appeared in front of my vision.
System Message
System initialisation has reached 10%. Basic system functionality is online. Basic system safeguards are online. Basic system interfaces are online and integrating. Potential refinement protocols are active. Unprocessed essence detected. Refinement in progress. Experience will be banked until full system initialisation. Congratulations, new user! Your personal system interface has begun initialisation. Please stand by as full integration continues.
As soon as I was able to focus and read the message, it vanished only to be replaced with another but the knowledge it imparted remained clear and almost seried into my mind.
System Warning
The dimensional barrier protecting your world/realm/plane of existence has weakened, its integrity reduced, and its permeability increased due to an accidental interaction between two external entities beyond your known reality. This degradation has allowed the exotic essence known as Mana to begin saturating your plane prematurely¡ªbefore your civilisation has advanced sufficiently to properly comprehend or adapt to it. As this event was not caused by any being from your local plane, the responsible entities have been penalised, and their forcibly extracted potential has been used to install the SYSTEM as an overlay onto your plane of existence. The SYSTEM is currently undergoing initialisation. Critical Status Update Unprocessed Mana Exposure Level: HIGH SYSTEM safeguards: Not yet fully operational Recommended Action Seek a place of safety while the SYSTEM completes initialisation. A percentage of the cognitive existences of your plane may undergo uncontrolled mana baptism, triggering forced awakenings without SYSTEM safeguards in place. Avoid such existences until the SYSTEM is fully operational and your local structured intervention entities can respond.
Once again, as soon as I was able to fully read the message it was replaced with another, but again with knowledge remained.
Congratulations!
You have successfully defeated and killed a Mana Abomination. As the sole contributor to the fight, you have absorbed the majority of the Mana Abomination¡¯s lost potential. However, as the system is still initialising, this potential has been refined into experience and will be banked until full system activation.
As once again the message vanished after reading it, but all other thoughts had fled my mind, any thought of the aurora blazing above me, the sight of which was my primary goal in life, or concern for the dead woman I had killed beside me all left. As Ice-cold realisation and determination filled me. I knew what this meant, in books and in video games it always showed the protagonist get confused at this point, as though the reader needed hand holding though what was going on, but I had played enough video game and read enough stories to know what was happening and only one thing was important, Experience meant levels and if the world was ending, Then the worst possible situation to be in was under-levelled, leading to death¡ªor worse fates, where falling behind became a never-ending hole, impossible to claw your way out of. No, nothing else matters now! It¡¯s time to start farming. Chapter Four It is, in fact, the non-human cases of forced awakening that I find most intriguing and that have been the focus of my research for many years. Despite the common consensus that forced mana awakening affected only high-intelligence primates, there have been, albeit rare, documented instances in non-primate species. These cases have largely been dismissed as instances of beastification, yet this classification is inaccurate, as the phenomenon affected only individual specimens rather than entire species. The most well-documented example is the case of Amphioctopus marginatus, commonly known as the veined octopus or coconut octopus, at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta¡ªbetter known to the public as Gary the Octopus. The veined octopus is widely regarded as one of the most intelligent cephalopods, known for its tool use, problem-solving abilities, and complex behaviours. On the Day of Awakening, Gary underwent an extraordinary transformation, rapidly increasing in size to that of a two-story building. In the immediate aftermath, he wreaked havoc across Atlanta, killing and consuming thousands before eventually retreating to the Georgia Aquarium. There, he established what is now classified as the Georgia Dungeon, with strong evidence suggesting that he became its Dungeon Lord. In recent years, Gary has exhibited signs of decreased aggression and increased cognitive function. Given his species'' natural intelligence, it would be particularly compelling to observe whether meaningful communication with such a creature might one day be possible. The extent to which his cognitive abilities may continue to develop remains an open question, especially as previous attempts at aggressive intervention have consistently resulted in heightened hostility in response. ¡ª Extract from a lecture by Dr Elliot Barnes, Doctor of Applied Mana and System Theory, delivered in September 2042. Chapter Four Day of awakening ¨C 23:02 Knowing that every second wasted was lost exp that had gone to someone else, I tucked the iron pipe into my belt and grabbed a length of steel box section that someone had cut the end off at 90 degrees and headed back out the side gate. The thick iron pipe felt awkward and bounce against my leg and the steel box section was too long and bounced as I jogged down the street, I could have stayed long and found something better, while I didn¡¯t have access to any of the tool, the yard for full of different piece of discarded scrap, but I didn¡¯t want to risk the delay. A growing concern I had was that if someone had already farmed all the immediately local exp opportunities then I would need to travel further, which would take more time, increasing the chance that someone might take those opportunities and so I would have to travel even further where I would be lucky to find anything at all. No! I wouldn¡¯t leave this up to chance, I need to farm every possibility of exp that is close by before it is snapped up by someone else, anything that I can find further afield after is just a bonus. Makeshift spear in hand I set off towards the closest disturbance that I could hear which was luckily close by, a group shouting one street over. I set off towards it at a steady job, wary that I was on an unknown time limit, but at the same time knowing that this was going to be a marathon, not a sprint. It had only taken me a couple of minutes to get to where I heard the commotion, it had gone quiet by the time I had drawn near, and I had worried that someone had already beaten me to it. But an odd sound drew my attention to an open house door and found a creature hunched with its back to me, its attention focused on something I could not make out on the floor. This time it looked like someone had started to transform into some sort of gorilla, but it had only affected it up body where it appeared to have ripped itself out of a shirt hulk style, but it legs were still that of a normal human, wearing what looked like normal suit trousers and shoes. Skipped leg day I see. I didn¡¯t stop to consider anything else, as I brought up my makeshift spear while lowering my body down into a full charge. My plan wasn¡¯t anything special, I had no real combat trying other than some after school judo classes and I knew that direct confrontation would most likely get me killed or at the very lease injured to the point that I wouldn¡¯t be able to farm any more exp. So, I only really had one play. Ambush, then extreme aggression The length of box session steel slammed into the back of the creature, used more like a lance than a spear, my momentum and the weight of the metal driving it through it back, under it ribs, and out its stomach by a full meter. The creature tried to arch back in pain and surprise at the sudden strike, causing the steel box section to bash against the floor, restricting it movements. But I hadn¡¯t stop though, the moment I felt it penetrate through, I had left go and was already bringing the thick iron pipe down on the creature¡¯s head, first blow stunned it, fourth blow brought it to its knees and with the eighth the skull started to cave in- I stopped on the twelfth. Panting I looked over at what the creature had been focused on before I ambushed it, the remains of a woman and a child were laid out on the floor, body¡¯s broken and shattered, the flesh had been stripped from the woman¡¯s arm where it had clearly been eating them. So, you came home late from work and were greeted by your wife and child¡­ ¡°Fuck¡­¡± While I had sort of prepared myself to deal with the fact I would likely see more dead people, or at the very least convinced myself I had, the scene of the dead child, broken from what looked like multiple enraged blows was too much, and I stumbled back, my vison starting to spin and my stomach clamped down. Grabbing the doorway, I spewed the contents of my stomach down the side of the open door as a message appeared in my vision.
Congratulations!
You have successfully defeated and killed a Mana Abomination. As the sole contributor to the fight, you have absorbed the majority of the Mana Abomination¡¯s lost potential. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. However, as the system is still initialising, this potential has been refined into experience and will be banked until full system activation.
¡°Just ignore it Jack, what¡¯s more important? A corpse that you can do nothing for or power to prevent it in the future?¡± Or, more importantly, not having the power to prevent it in the future. Clarity and focus returned and bracing my foot on the creature¡¯s back, I pulled my makeshift free, slick blood coating it, wiping the worse of it off with a strip of the creatures torn shirt. I ignored the faces of people watching me from the windows of the other houses and set off back the way I came, following the sound of shouting and a dog¡¯s barks. My next EXP encounter was an easy one, this time in the form of a much more recognisable werewolf, I found it trying to attack a dog that was darting back and forth barking before dodging back and the wolf man tried to swipe at it. Its distraction made it easy, as I once again ambushed it, by running it through with the box section and then beating it over the head until I got the congratulation message and moved on, the dog just stood over a body of a person I hadn¡¯t seen before and growled at me as I passed. Hmmm so know I know what evisceration looks like, another thing I could have done without knowing. Part of me wanted to stay and see if I could find the dogs home or at least get him somewhere safe, but as before I needed to move, every second wasted I was falling behind someone. ¡°Sorry boy, you¡¯re on your own. And don¡¯t eat you¡¯re your owner! it will make you sick!¡± My next encounter went differently, I had been attracted by the sound of someone shouting for help and found the source coming from a man running up a back alley, I tried to call out to him, but he bowled right into me, almost impaling himself on my make-shift spear before sprinting off down the road. Rude! Turning to look down the alley the way he came, I saw what he was running from. It was a blob, a human blob, so bloated was it that as it worked its way down the alley, its body pushed up against the sides, filling it and making a square shape. As I watched a massive, bloated hand pushing what looked like a woman¡¯s body into it massive mouth, swallowing it whole before its eye¡¯s locked onto me, a large tongue came out, licking it lips before it charged, slow at first and it needed to push it pull though the alley, but quickly gaining speed. How the hell am I meant to kill that, it¡¯s got to be the size of an elephant. With no confidence that I would be able to penetrate dead enough to do more that piss it off and no way that I could see to get to it head, I was left with only one rally option. I¡¯m going to have to run and leave this for someone with a gun to sort, the local armed response unit most have mobilised by now, but it is going to take them forever to work their way through all this and it going to kill so many people before then¡­.maybe¡­maybe I could slow it down though, then trap it somehow. I looked down at my makeshift spear / lance and an idea started to form. If you can¡¯t beat them, let them beat them self¡¯s I braced the flat end of the box section against the edge of a loose paving stone, gripping it tight as the creature hurtled towards me. But instead of tensing for impact, I let my body stay loose, the cut-off end of the steel bar aimed at the centre of the jiggling mass of flesh. At the last second, I threw myself to the side, letting the makeshift lance slip from my grip just as it struck the man-blob-monster. I hit the ground hard, clipping the alley wall, and what should have been a controlled dive turned into a graceless tumble. The impact drove the iron pipe, still tucked into my belt, deep into my gut, knocking the breath from my lungs. Pain flared, sharp and immediate, but it was nothing compared to the deep, pained, bellow the creature made. Scrambling to my feet, I turned to see it writhing, the box section speared straight through its bloated stomach and wedged deep into the ground. It thrashed in place, unable to advance, its swollen, sagging arms straining uselessly at its sides. Too thick to reach around its massive bulk, unable to reach the makeshift lance, let alone pull it free. If it had been smarter, less blinded by rage, it could have probably pulled itself out, but creatures small beady eyes just locked on me tried to charge forward, driving the box section deeper and causing to writhe with pain again. ¡°Ha! how do you like that, you stupid, fat fuck! What are you going do now!?¡± As though responding to my words, the creature roared with rage and with a mighty yank, pulled upwards ripping the box section right out of the ground, taking the paving stone with it before turning to face me and whipping around the box section at the same time. Driven by possible pure instinct, but most likely just a knee-jerk shock reaction, I pulled my head back just in time to narrowly avoid edge of the box section whipping pass across my eyes, like Neo dodging a hail of bullets, but then losing balance and falling on my arss. I didn¡¯t hang around and quickly darted behind a parked car while swearing at myself. ¡°Stupid, Stupid Jack, you don¡¯t fucking gloat until you know its dead, fucking stupid fuck fuck!¡± My self-indulgence angry was short lived as something smashed into the car, shoving it sideway and knocking me to my arss again with glass raining down around me. I gingerly started quickly picking the glass of myself, before realising that it was the toughened glass of the car and so had shattered into small blunt edge piece and just brushed myself off while getting up. Once again the car was shoved sideways, followed by raged fill bellow and looking over I realised that the blob monster had charged the car to get at me and in doing so, rammed the box section though the driver side windows, though the car and out of passenger side. Now trapped it was all the bloated monster could do to shover the car or rattle the box section in the door frame where the car door windows used to be. Another shove, another bellow and I realised that as long as I kept it attention of me on the other side of the car I had it trapped, I couldn¡¯t do anything else about it, I couldn¡¯t move from my position as the moment I moved off to either sides it would follow and possibly free itself, but if I stayed where I am, it would keep trying to push forward, keeping itself locked to the car, but leaving us in a stalemate. I couldn¡¯t kill it from where I was, I could maybe climb, up on the car and jump at his head and get a good hit on him with my trusty iron pipe, but the moment I did I would then be on top of him right where his gaping moar of a mouth was lined with teeth like a shark. Yeah, hard no on that, wonder if I could attach him more permanently to the car though and then just leave him for an armed police office to kill later, or maybe someone with a bow, anything ranged really¡­¡­note to self, buy a cross bow. Possible interesting future plan aside, I would need a chain or a heavy-duty ratchet strap to tie him down to the car. The monster took this moment to let out another bellow of rage and shove the car towards me another 10 centimetres and knocking me out of my mussing. ¡°Oh, shut up, I am trying to think here!¡± Jack, we spoke about this, enough with the gloating you just wasting possible EXP farming time while you are stuck here chatting to this tub of lard. This was my primary concern at the moment, the human-blob-monster was most contained and wouldn¡¯t be able to hurt anyone else, it was trapping me here at the same time, preventing me from obtaining any more exp and a possible future of falling into the under-levelled hole. Fuck it, I might just have to leave this here, it not really my job to keep other safe as many people would like to say it is, normally as long as it not them being the ones who have to actually being the ones who need to be the ones sacrificing for it. It was at that moment, as I was weighing up my options that my eye caught some movement from atop the alleyway wall, before someone wearing nothing but black, leaped at the back of the creature, what looked like a kitchen knife in their outstretched hand, plunging it down into the mass of flesh¡¯s neck. Chapter Five Beastification is a widely misinterpreted and often incorrectly used term, frequently employed as a catch-all to describe the process of mana reinforcement in natural animals. This process enhances and often overdevelops specific evolutionary traits within a given species or subspecies, in addition to applying standard physical enchantments. However, this broad usage is inaccurate, as it merely describes the natural process of mana reinforcement that all creatures undergo when exposed to moderate to high mana environments. True Beastification, by contrast, refers to a distinct process in which an animal, for unknown reasons, begins to develop a crystalline structure within its chest, typically adjacent to the heart. This crystal gradually integrates with the animal¡¯s physiology, forming a rudimentary mana network that assists with and enhances the flow and control of mana within its body. Current research suggests that the development of such a network should, in theory, require sentient cognitive thought. Yet, this mana crystal, as it is commonly known, enables affected animals to instinctively harness mana. Documented cases include instances of bears capable of igniting their fur into an inferno without suffering physical harm. The patterns of Beastification are particularly intriguing and, at times, appear unnaturally structured. While there is currently no direct evidence to support this claim, it raises the possibility that the process is not entirely organic. It is as though the system¡ªwhether consciously or as a function of its design¡ªhas taken a naturally occurring but rare phenomenon, one that allows non-sentient creatures to utilize mana, and repurposed it. If this is the case, Beastification may be following a predetermined path, artificially guided toward an unknown objective of the system. ¡ª Extract from a lecture by Dr Elliot Barnes, Doctor of Applied Mana and System Theory, delivered in September 2042. Chapter five Day of awakening ¨C 00:17 The blob monster cried out in pain, flailing from side to side trying to dislodge the man attached to its back, its large, bloated hand unable to reach him in the centre of its back. With nothing but the kitchen knife to hold onto, the man swinging back and forth like a pendulum. Like watching someone cling to a bucking rodeo machine, it was honestly impressive how long they were able to stay attached to the knife, blood fountained out, coating everything around it, but it wasn¡¯t long before, whether from the blood coating the blade¡¯s handle or their hands simply getting tired, they lost their grip and were flung to the side crashing against the alleyway wall. I sprang into action, ready to rush out and drag them to safety, but no sooner had I started to move, they picked themselves up off the floor and rushed round to stand next to me on this side of the car almost like they had simply bounced off the wall completely unharmed, that and the fact that he, and from the height and build they were a he, he was wearing black jeans, a black hoody and a black balaclava with a full face skull on it, told me everything I needed to know about this guy. Fucking indestructible teenagers. Every part of my body felt beaten with all the warning signs that I was going to be covered in bruises come the morning, but he just gets slammed full bodily into a wall and just gets up as though he was made from rubber. ¡°I hope you don¡¯t mind me ¡®Jumping in¡¯?¡± Suppressing a smile at his attempt to put on what he must have thought was a deep, gruff voice. ¡°No, I was planning on bailing anyway¡± ¡°You were planning on giving up the kill?¡± surprise starting to break through his forced voice. ¡°I had it locked up, but no way to finish it and I didn¡¯t want to waste time when there might be better farming spots.¡± ¡°Guess that¡¯s true. Wait, does that mean if I had waited, I could have had the kill to myself?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± I turned smiling at him, ¡°But now you¡¯re going to have to share all that tasty EXP.¡± An unintentional groan spilled from the kid before he remembered to force his voice. We stared the blob monster for a bit, watching it thrash, trapped in place, a geyser of blood gushing out of its neck. ¡°It¡¯s sure taking a long time to die, how long do you think it¡¯s going to take?¡± The uncertainty in his voice was at odds with the deep, gruff Batman voice he was trying to go with. ¡°No Idea, it has certainly lost a lot of blood though¡± As it was a lot of blood, way more than the five or so litres that a human normally had and it was really fountaining out of the creature¡¯s neck and thickly coating the surrounding area as it thrashed, I was honestly surprised that the kid didn¡¯t seem to have any on him. ¡°Is it just me or does it appear to be deflating slightly? Also, I¡¯m Jack¡± ¡°Oh,¡± the kids voice suddenly got even more deeper causing me to burst out in laughter said next ¡°I¡¯m Reaper.¡± ¡°Sure, you are kid, Sure you don¡¯t mean¡± I dropped voice to match his ¡°I¡¯m Batman!¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s Reaper! And I¡¯m not a kid I¡¯m twenty¡­ five, yes I¡¯m twenty-five.¡± I burst into laughter again. ¡°Kid if you are even twenty I will give Mr blobby here a deep passionate kiss right here and now, no if I had to guess you are sixteen, maybe seventeen. Also, you know that skull mask looks ridiculous, right?¡± ¡°No, it looks badass¡± his force voice rapidly being replaced by an annoyed one. ¡°It makes you look like you''re out trick-or-treating, you know it¡¯s glow in the dark, right? Not very sneaky.¡± ¡°Shut up!¡± The forced bickering carried on, going back and forth trying to distract ourselves from what was going on and the stress we were under, while we waited for kill notification to appear. Finally, after what had to have been fifteen minutes of light-hearted bickering, the kid having given up on the forced batman voice. We finally got the message we were waiting for.
Congratulations! If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
You have successfully defeated and killed a Mana Abomination. As a minor contributor to the fight, you have absorbed a small portion of the Mana Abomination¡¯s lost potential. However, as the system is still initialising, this potential has been refined into experience and will be banked until full system activation.
The kid whooped as I cursed. ¡°Minor contributor!... I did all the fucking work; you just stabbed it once and then just hung around chatting for the rest of the fight.¡± ¡°The Reaper is just that amazing, you just need to get good¡± ¡°The Reeeeapeeeer can go fuck off, I¡¯m not calling you that, it is lame¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry I can carry you if you want, want to team up? You can be my robin if you want and ride the Reaper train.¡± ¡°A, go fuck yourself, B, Robin can go fuck himself, I ain¡¯t anybody¡¯s fucking sidekick and C¡­¡± I let out a long exhale as I moved over to my length and steel box section to see about pulling it free ¡°yeah we should probably team up, I wasted too much time trying to solo this as it is, we will be able to farm quicker and safer as a team¡± The kid nodded at this, before heading off to retrieve his knife, before stopping suddenly and almost slipping in the blood puddle, distracted as he probably saw a verification of the message that had just appeared.
System Notification
Shannon Doyle (Party Leader) has invited you to join their party. However, as the SYSTEM is still initialising, the party system is currently locked. This invite has been automatically rejected. Potential distribution management is unavailable at this time.
Even before the message had disappeared an evil grin had spread across my face. ¡°Hey Shannon, I just got a party invite from you Shannon, is that correct Shannon, looks like I¡¯ve been automatically rejected Shannon, shame about that Shannon.¡± The kid let out a pained groan as he disappeared behind the blob to try and retrieve his knife. I was about to start giving him more grief about his name now that I know that his was in fact a weak spot for him, when I heard footsteps jogging up from down the street. A well-built man in full biker gear, the commute to work kind, not the Hell¡¯s Angels kind was jogging down the street towards us, what looked like a cricket bat held over one shoulder. ¡°Hey, you guy okay? Is it dead?¡± ¡°Yeah, we got the kill notification, we¡¯re fine¡± ¡°The what notification?¡± the man said with a confused look on his face as he came to a stop next to me staring up and the creature. ¡°Damn, that''s massive. You two really brought this thing down yourselves?¡± he directed a look of doubt at me before continuing. ¡°I heard the commotion and would have come over and helped sooner, but I was fighting off this porcupine bear thing.¡± The man instantly had all my attention. ¡°Is it dead? Did you kill it? Did you get the kill notification?¡± ¡°What notifications-¡± The man leaned back at my sudden intensity, stepping into a wary defensive stance. ¡°Notifications?-¡± ¡°The Kill Notification! Did you kill it and did you get a message confirming that you had killed a Mana Abomination!? It important!¡± ¡°The weird box thing that popped up? Talking about potential and banking, yeah I got it?¡± ¡°Oh, okay then,¡± losing interested I turned back to trying to budge my length of steel box section and seemed to have gotten itself stuck. ¡°Is the window important, why does it matter¡± the man eyeing me still in a defensive stance, most likely concerned by my sudden change in attitude and back again. ¡°Because these creatures might be able to heal, regenerate missing body parts etc. We just don¡¯t know¡± ¡°And you trust these¡­Kill Notifications? To confirm they are really dead?¡± ¡°Trust an unknown popup that magically appeared around the time the world end and people started turning into monsters???, fuck no, it just cost me nothing to keep whaling on them while I wait a little bit longer for a pop up.¡± ¡°I guess that make sense, wait what do you mean turning people into monsters!?¡± The man roughly grabbed me by the shoulders, forcing me to turn and look at him. ¡°Fuck man, calm down¡± breaking his grip on me and taking a step back. ¡°Calm down!? You just said that that-¡± He pointed angrily at the blob monster that had been leaking blood all the time and like a ballon had deflated to almost half its original size and starting to fold in on itself. ¡°Was once a fu-¡­ was once human? And you wait me to be calm?!¡± ¡°Look I don¡¯t know anything for certain, it has barely been a handful of hours since this all kicked off but¡± I then went on to explain about Claire and my suspicions around it while once again trying to free my makeshift spear. By the time I finished my recounting, I had failed to budge it an inch, but I noticed that Shannon had retrieved his knife while somehow not getting a single drop of blood on him and had been standing off to the side of the man listening in. The man had been silent while I recounted my story. ¡°This can be true, even if it was it would take months for someone to mutate and transform like that-¡° ¡°It¡¯s true. I saw it happen¡± The man turned to face the kid, seeming not surprised to find him standing behind him, like he knew he was there the whole time. "We¡ªme and my gran, that is¡ªwe had a lodger, you know, to help make ends meet. Dominic. That was his name. I think he came from Poland. He hadn¡¯t been with us long, and he mostly kept to himself. But he was in the kitchen when Gran and I got back from shopping¡ªshe likes to do it last thing at night, says it¡¯s to get the best deals, but I think she just doesn¡¯t like the crowds. We got home just as the lights went out, but Gran likes candles, so we lit some to see by, and he was just standing there. In the kitchen. Not moving. Just swaying slightly, in this creepy way." "Gran called out to him, asked if anything was wrong, but he didn¡¯t respond. Just ignored us. I went to grab his arm to shake him, but he was so hot¡ªthe heat, it was like¡ªlike standing next to a bonfire. And then he suddenly turned, and his face¡ªhis face was¡ªhe looked drugged or something. And then he just changed. He just started to grow, straight up, like his mouth stretched out and his arms extended down till they nearly touched the floor, and then¡ªthen he rushed past me. Straight for Gran. Knocked her over a chair, and then he was on top of her, trying to pull the chair away, and Gran was screaming¡ª" "I grabbed a knife. I just started stabbing him, in his back. Over and over. And then¡ªI saw the message pop up." "But Gran had passed out, and the phones weren¡¯t working, so I ran across the road to see Charlotte¡ªshe¡¯s a nurse at the hospital, I thought she could help¡ªbut then I saw it. This¡­ Rhino-man thing. But with a round head. With these ridges¡ªlike that guy from that really old show, Star Trek, that Gran likes to watch. And it was just trying to smash its way through the door, and I could hear Charlotte screaming on the other side. So I¡ªI ran up and stabbed it. In the back. And¡ª" "And I think it was Mike, her husband. I think I killed Mike." The kid was nearly hyperventilating as he just spewed out what had happened to him as though he needed to unload it all quick unless something worse happened. ¡°Whoa their Kid, it okay, you did the right thing, is your Gran okay, where is she?¡± ¡°Charlotte is watching over her Mr Jamerson¡¯s, most of the street are there as he has all these gas camping lights.¡± ¡°Why did you stay with her Kid, why are you out here fighting these monsters instead?¡± The man asked a slight accusatory tone in his voice as he stared at the kid, still wearing his glow in the dark skull balaclava mask. ¡°Because of the EXP of cause, I¡¯ve read the stories, I don¡¯t want to be under levelled.¡± The kid responded with clear are you an idiot tone in his voice.¡± ¡°Under levelled?!¡± angry now clear in the man¡¯s voice as he started to point at the kid, ¡°this isn¡¯t a game kid, you are KILLING people! You can¡¯t just-¡° ¡°ENOUGH!¡± Interrupting them both before this could escalate I continued. ¡°We don¡¯t have time for this, there are monsters out their killing people and we are wasting our time here instead of helping people¡± And failing behind with our farming, we need that exp. ¡°But you¡¯re talking about killing people-¡° ¡°THEY ARE EATING PEOPLE!¡± I roared back at him. ¡°They are turning into God Dam Monsters! and killing and then eating the people who are closest to them who I would guess considering the time of night this all kicked off meant their loved ones. For fuck¡¯s sake, I found one guy eating what I¡¯m ninety-nine percent certain was his wife and child¡ªafter beating them both to death!¡± This was then punctuated by a scream another couple of streets away. ¡°Case in point¡± I said grabbing my make shift spear, bracing my foot against the car and with my full body behind it stoked by the angry that had been slowly boiling away I heaved, whatever was pinning the box section finally gave way and pulling it free, more blood bursting out and coating the inside of the car, I turned started jogging towards where eth scream had come from, the other two following behind. Chapter Six While the crystalline growth found within so-called Mana Beasts induces various physiological changes, these alterations are constrained by and directly correlated to the purity of the mana contained within the crystal. Importantly, this transformation is distinct from the process of forced, uncontrolled awakening observed in humans. Unlike Mana Abominations, which exhibit extreme and unnatural mutations, Beastified creatures remain within their species'' natural physiological limits. This inherent constraint serves as the key distinguishing factor between Mana Beasts and Mana Abominations. Notably, the process of Beastification does not appear to influence the cognition or behaviour of affected animals. They continue to exhibit the same behavioural patterns as their non-Beastified counterparts in identical situations. Herd-based or social animals, for instance, continue to accept, interact with, and even mate with their Beastified brethren without exhibiting signs of rejection or altered group dynamics. The only observed exception occurs during periods of elevated mana density in the surrounding environment, which has been shown to have an agitating effect on Beastified creatures, often leading to heightened aggression or erratic behaviour. ¡ª Extract from a lecture by Dr Elliot Barnes, Doctor of Applied Mana and System Theory, delivered in September 2042.. Chapter Six Day of awakening ¨C 00:50 Making it across the street and down a different alley, heading in the general direction, the screaming was becoming louder and more desperate along with the sound of something being smashed. Not looking back, I shouted to the others. ¡°Hey Shannon,¡± I could swear I heard a groan from behind me, but I ignored it and pushed on. ¡°You okay to run burst?¡± ¡°Burst?- Oh yeah, yeah that¡¯s fine.¡± Initial confusion gave way to determination in the kids voice. ¡°Okay good, wait for me to lock it down and then go. Hey errr¡­¡± I looked back quickly at the other guy, ¡°sorry I didn¡¯t get your name?¡± ¡°Stevenson¡± the response short and terse. ¡°Okay Stevenson, I need you to pull aggro, you okay with that?¡± ¡°Aggrow?¡± confusion and a small amount of annoyance clear in his voice from the unknown gamer term. ¡°Distract it and try and keep it attention on you, but don¡¯t fully engage it in a fight, just harass it and turn and get it to turn it back to me and Shannon.¡± ¡°You going to try and kill it?¡± his voice now harsh and aggressive, ¡°They people, you can¡¯t just-¡° ¡°Look we don¡¯t have time for this, if you not going to help just stay out of the way.¡± Turning the corner, I didn¡¯t even hesitate, box section out, I lowered my body and charged. A giant man-bat like creature had smashed open, the passenger side window of a small hatchback and had reached one long clawed arm and was taking swipes at the back seats where two girls had pressed themselves into the corner away from it screaming in terror. The cut off end of the box section slammed straight into the side of the creature¡¯s torso and clean out the other side causing it to screech and pull back it arm out for eh car to try and get at me, but by holding onto the box section I was able to keep my distance and somewhat control its movement and then the kid came in, slamming his knife into its back over and over again driven by panic and adrenaline. The man-bat monster tried to spin around and grab him, but threw my entire weight behind the box section keeping it pinned against the car and preventing it from turning to face the kid.
Congratulations!
You have successfully defeated and killed a Mana Abomination. As a minor contributor to the fight, you have absorbed a small portion of the Mana Abomination¡¯s lost potential. However, as the system is still initialising, this potential has been refined into experience and will be banked until full system activation.
Really? minor contributor again, if it wasn¡¯t for me he would have never of gotten the kill. God Damn it. The man-bat monster had eventually spasmed and slumped forward onto the car door after quiet a few stabs from the kid, far more than I would have liked, guessing that the ribs were protecting anything vital from the wide kitchen knife from reaching. Going to need to think about that, the kid really needs to hit something vital on the first strike or this will take too long. I leaned up against the side of the car, glancing inside, I remembered the two girls¡¯ existence and swearing to myself, worked to pull the man-bat monster away from the car. ¡°Fuck, sorry, are you girls okay?¡± I leaned in through the car window to get a better look at them to see if they were okay and not injured in anyway. The two girls, most likely in their late teens or early twenties and dressed up in the kind of short tight dresses that somehow women managed to wear clubbing even this close to winter. Streams of tears running down their face, making their makeup run, clearing stuck between terror and shock. ¡°Hey Hey, it¡¯s fine now, we killed it, you¡¯re safe now, come let get you out of there and somewhere safe.¡± I tried to make my voice as soft and reassuring as I could, as I pulled the chair forward to let the girls out, one of the girls sudden cried out, her voice broken with fearful sobs. ¡°What about John!?.... did you find john!?... You need to save him¡­ another one of those-¡° Shit I yanked myself out of the car, not listening to the rest of what she was saying, just in time to see another creature come barrelling down the street on all fours, its face distorted into something resembling an owl, but still with teeth, taloned hands digging into the ground. I grabbed at the box section trying to pull it free of the man-bat corpse at my feet, knowing that I needed to try and get in front of the owl monster¡¯s charge and try and impale it like I had the blob monster. Trapping and ambushing had worked well so far, but skilled warriors we were not, and it would slaughter us in a standup fight. No if I was unable to lock down its movements, we were going to have to flee and abandon the girls to their fate. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. But yanking my makeshift spear free I saw that I was already too late, it was upon us with no time to get into position and just as I was about to shout to run, Stevenson stepped in front of the monster and in same fluid movement bashed his cricket bat into the owl monsters head, knocking it to the side before side stepping out of it way. What then followed was one of the most amazing scene of my life, Sanderson somehow managed to stand his ground against the owl monster, using his cricket bat to quite literally bat way each of the monsters blows, deflecting or redirecting them as he bobbed and weaved in a way that looked effortless and almost slow, never stepping back, never giving ground but gradually turning the creature until I realised that he was repositioning it so that I had an opening. Quickly moving up the creature, and not have the space to get a good run up to build momentum, I thrust my make shift spear into the creatures side, piercing just below it ribs and going deep into it stomach, but not passing all the way though, then once again using the box section as leverage I was able to twist the creature around until I was facing the car and then shoved forward, pushing the screeching monster off balance until it was pinned up against the car, its trashing and clawing causing the girls inside to once again start screaming in fear. Despite having it pinned, holding it in place against the car was quickly exhausting me, the combined need to keep pressed forward into place, while also straining to stop it from slipping sidesways was almost over whelming, be Sanderson appear and grabbed onto it helping to hold it in place as simultaneously the kid appeared and began once again, manically stabbing at its back.
Congratulations!
You have successfully defeated and killed a Mana Abomination. As a minor contributor to the fight, you have absorbed a small portion of the Mana Abomination¡¯s lost potential. However, as the system is still initialising, this potential has been refined into experience and will be banked until full system activation.
Suddenly exhausted, I collapsed to a crouch and rested my back to the car trying to catch my breath as the adrenaline and panic from being the one almost ambushed this time fled. I looked up at Sanderson, the man just looking around not even out of breath. ¡°Thanks for that, we most likely would have had to abandon the girls and run if you hadn¡¯t stepped in.¡± He nodded noncommittally down at me before the kid pipped in. ¡°Yeah, you were fucking awesome, I¡¯ve never seen someone fight like that, it was like watching a lightsabre duel or something, where did you learn to fight like that, are you some marital arts blackbelt or something?¡± ¡°Just something I picked up from my time in the navy¡± The kid¡¯s eyes seemed to go wide and light up at that. ¡°What like in the Seals!?¡± ¡°Ha, god no!, I was just an engineer, I mostly just went around slapping grease on stuff and fixing anything the officers broke.¡± A slight smile crossed his face as some of the tension he must have been carrying left him and his body started to relax. ¡°Also, the Seal are from the U.S.A¡± I said, pulling myself to my feet, ¡°it the S.A.S in the UK¡± ¡°Actually, it¡¯s the S.B.S for the Royal Navy, S.A.S is the army¡± Sanderson added going round to check on the girls. ¡°Are you two okay? Do you live near here, can we get you somewhere safe?¡± Both girls shock the heads ¡°We live on the other side of town, but we need to find John, that creature was chasing him, he might be injured. We need to-¡± ¡°Wait stop,¡± I interrupted, ¡°do either of you to have any medical training, are you nurses or trainee doctors maybe?¡± They shock their heads again ¡°no but,¡± ¡°But nothing, it¡¯s insane out here at the moment with more of these creatures roaming around¡± I could already here other disturbances not far off and knew we needed to get moving. ¡°Look do you know whose house this is?¡± I pointed to the house the car was parked outside off, the door wide open. ¡°it¡¯s Ryan¡¯s¡± ¡°Who¡¯s Ryan?¡± One of the girls pointed at the body of the man-bat monster and while the other one burst back into tears. ¡°Shit right, look just¡­ just go and lock yourselves inside, we will go look for John and we will let him know where you are if we find him okay.¡± The girls just looked at me, still clearing in shock and I ended up gently but firmly leading them into the house and then dragging them up the stairs after they saw the bodies of who I guessed were Ryan¡¯s parents in the kitchen. Depositing them in the master bedroom I turned to leave, but of the girls lunged out grabbing my hand. ¡°Please don¡¯t leave!¡± desperate panic filled her voice. Gently I peeled her fingers off my hand. ¡°I need to go, there maybe others who need my help.¡± ¡°Please we do anything, just don¡¯t-¡° ¡°Look, you¡¯ll be fine,¡± I interrupted, ¡°Just hid in here and wait for morning, okay, just don¡¯t go outside, as long as nothing sees you will be fine. If I can, I¡¯ll swing back around and check on you. Just stay up here and hid.¡± I left the room quickly and shutting the door behind me, leaving them just standing there lost and afraid. Heading out of the house I saw Sanderson staring down at the man-bat monster who was apparently once a guy called Ryan, a mixed expression on his face. Right, I need to get on top of this now, or it will just slow us down The fight with the owl monster had shown that we needed Sanderson if we wanted to stay safe, or more importantly increase our farming rate and efficiency. ¡°Look Sanderson,¡± Getting his attention, ¡°while I¡¯m not going to promise anything, if we get an opportunity to trap or contain one of these creatures, by trapping them in a big freezer or a shipping container or something and there is a low risk to us, then I am happy to give it a go. But let me make this clear, first, we will prioritise saving people over any monsters even if they were once human and second, if and when we come across any monsters, we will either trap them if we can of kill them. I¡¯m not willing to just leave a monster roaming around even if it is not attacking anyone at the moment just so that it can ambush and attack someone once we leave, Am I understood? Oh, also when I say trapped, I mean securely contained, not just locked in a shed.¡± He frowned at me clearly not happy with me, whether it was from what I said or just the fact that I was talking down to him when I clearly a lot younger than he was, but seemed to let it go and letting out a long sign. ¡°Look I get it, I¡¯m just not happy about it, we are talking about killing people here-¡° ¡°Well, the world might be ending,¡± I cut in, ¡°And if the power doesn¡¯t comeback on, then murdering each other might soon become the normal soon just to survive.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± the kid worriedly asks from my side as I cleaned off my makeshift spear. ¡°I don¡¯t know if I can kill real people? I mean-¡± ¡°I mean¡± interrupting him this time, a little more short than I meant, ¡°Ignoring both nuclear and biological containment which both rely on a stead stream of power,¡± Sanderson face when white at this, ¡°The UK doesn¡¯t produce enough food to feed itself as it is, we import around 40% and with the fridges and freezer not working, everything fresh will go off in the next to weeks, and the supermarkets and warehouses would be emptied of dried or tinned goods and by Christmas there will be mass starvation, not even to mention water sanitation, do you know how to get clean water? I sure as hell don¡¯t, also it going to be winter soon so people will also be freezing to death, oh and to top it all off, because of how much we have abused and over farmed our arable land and our reliance on fertilizer and pesticides, good luck growing anything in any real quantity come spring.¡± Both the kid and Sanderson were staring at me, looks of horror plastered over their faces. Fuck, this isn¡¯t helping anything. The kid looked like he was about to say something, so I quickly cut him off. ¡°Look, there is no point worrying about it now, there is nothing we can do about it, unless you want to go start looting supermarkets for rice and loo roll. No let¡¯s do what we can and save as many people as possible while we can and leave tomorrows problems for tomorrow, who knows this might all be a temporary thing and the power comes back on. Anyway, we have far more important thing to focus on first, like not becoming under levelled.¡± I end what I was saying to a pointed look at the kid, who nodded back understanding, if not happy. ¡°Under levelled?¡± Sanderson asked worry still plain in his voice. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, we can discuss later, it isn¡¯t important right now, let just focus on saving people,¡± Not allowing the convocation to continue, I headed off at a jog in the direction the owl monster had come from, passing body on the corner of the street of a well-dressed young man ready for a night out with what looked like his chest torn open, and I headed off towards the sounds of the next disturbance, ready to get some really farming underway. Chapter Seven The crystalline growths known as mana crystals have revolutionised nearly every aspect of human civilisation, surpassing even the most optimistic projections. What was once mere theory is now the foundation of modern energy infrastructure. Fossil fuels are obsolete, replaced entirely by mana crystal technology. Power generation, transportation, climate control, industrial manufacturing¡ªeach has been reshaped by their unparalleled ability to store and release mana in the form of electromagnetic, electrical, thermal, and even kinetic energy. Their capacity to autonomously recharge during periods of high environmental mana density has rendered traditional fuel cycles meaningless. Yet, the true potential of mana crystals extends far beyond energy. Recent breakthroughs have revealed their capability for high-capacity data storage and processing, a discovery that has led to one of the most controversial fields of modern research: Synthetic Crystalline Intelligence (S.C.I.). This emerging discipline, pioneered by the Thanatosynthetic Engineering community, has pushed the boundaries of technology¡ªand morality. By binding and modifying the minds of lab animals into altered mana crystals, researchers have created a new form of cognition, one that blurs the line between artificial intelligence and organic consciousness. But perhaps even more unsettling is the growing investment into Mana-Encoded Cognition, a theoretical method of transferring human minds into crystalline constructs. Rumours of billionaire-funded projects seeking to achieve immortality through these means are gaining traction, yet regulatory oversight is virtually non-existent. What are the implications of such a development? Would these individuals truly persist, or would they simply be replaced by a hollow facsimile of consciousness? Yet, even as we push forward with these advancements, we must confront a far greater question¡ªone that extends beyond ethics and into the unknown. Are these developments within mana crystals purely natural, or are they part of a larger, unseen design? Just as we question the origins of Mana Beasts, we must ask: Is the evolution of mana crystals following an organic path, or is it being deliberately shaped by the system? If so¡ªwhat is the end goal? ¡ª Extract from a lecture by Dr Elliot Barnes, Doctor of Applied Mana and System Theory, delivered in September 2042. Chapter Seven Day of awakening ¨C 03:00 The next two hours netted us quite the bounty of exp with twenty-three monster kills to our name and we had fallen into a pretty efficient takedown process, where I would ambush, running them through from behind or the side and then pinning them to a wall, while the kid would then come up behind and try and stab it in the neck and quickly sawing the blade back and forth and then withdrawing with the knife so that it would quickly bleed out while Stevenson would distract and occupy any second monster that might have been there or if there wasn¡¯t one he would just start smashing its head in. While initially hesitant to harm the monsters, he had quickly hardened after finding our third house with everyone dead inside with a monster inside eating one of the bodies. Specifically, he seemed to go cold after finding the corpse, which monster was eating, belonged to a young girl around five or six with dirty blond hair. He had gone very cold upon seeing her and started aggressively pushing us to move faster, move on from the last fight quicker and get to the next encounter. I was happy at the increased farming rate, but I was growing concerned about him, that he might snap. Luckily we only encountered more than two monsters once, we had come across a house with two monsters trying to ram the front door, one monster with bulging arm muscles and antlers on its head like a roided-up elk-human hybrid. It had its head down and kept smashing it horns into the door which was already smashed and ajar, but was being held closed by a man shoving a couch up against the door, desperately trying to prevent the door from opening further, but it was slowly losing battle as with each ram, the gap got a bit bigger, while a second monster that looked it had been crossed with a moles or maybe a hairless badger slowly forced its head into the widening gap preventing it from closing. The front garden of the house had been concreted over, and a workman¡¯s van took up most of the space, backing up so that it blocked and almost touched the lounge window, leaving a narrow path to the front door. Seeing my chance and knowing that I was running out of time until the door got forced and the bald-badger monster got inside and started killing people, I charged the elk monster, hoping to pin it to the door while trapping the bald-badger monster behind it. I was mostly successful, my makeshift spear caught the creature from behind and running it though passing below the ribs as I had now done many times, the monsters being as weak as humans anywhere that hadn¡¯t gone through some form of transformation, but I ended up carrying the momentum into the bald-badger monster and slamming it deeper into the gap and forcing an arm though that it was now using to try and drag it self-deeper. ¡°Fuck! Shannon I¡¯m going to try and drag this one out, see if you can get the other one, it is trapped in the door-¡± ¡°Jack! Above you!¡± Above me? I didn¡¯t have battle-hardened reflexes to save me, or drilled combat training to react on command without thinking. I was just a normal, exhausted, adrenaline-fatigued twenty-seven-year-old whose mind was barely holding together¡ªstrained by an escalating migraine and the mounting pressure of ignoring every horrific thing I¡¯d seen in the last few hours. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. So, I just... slowly looked up. Ah. I¡¯ve been pushing my luck again, haven¡¯t I? Dumb. That was all I managed to think as I watched a pair of serrated mandibles descended toward my head. I didn¡¯t see, just felt Stevenson smash into me and colliding into the monster, its beetle-like head narrowly missing me as we fell into a scrum. Adrenaline once again fired into my system, forcing awake brain and kicking it into full fight or flight mode punching through the fog of exhaustion. I twisted around from where I lay on the floor and grabbed the monster in a bear hug, locking its arms to its side as Stevenson equally had his arms wrapped around the creature¡¯s mandibles, keeping them closed as he dug his knee into its back and wrenched its head back exposing its neck, seeing the opportunity I inhaled and let out a roar. ¡°SHANNON, NOW!¡± But I needn¡¯t have bothered, as the kid had already launched himself at the monster, driving the knife into its neck and down into it throat before making a quick side to side motion to do as much damage as possible before withdrawing and positioning himself so he could keep all three monsters in his line of sight while we kept the beetlehead monster locked in place.
Congratulations!
You have successfully defeated and killed a Mana Abomination. As a minor contributor to the fight, you have absorbed a small portion of the Mana Abomination¡¯s lost potential. However, as the system is still initialising, this potential has been refined into experience and will be banked until full system activation.
Releasing the now dead beetle creature I rounded on the remaining two monsters, the bald-badger monster still trapped in the doorway, while the elk-man monster was still pinned face first to the door by my steel box section spear, which had the combined weight of myself and the beetle-head monster to keep it pinned in place and prevented it from twisting around to get at me. Keeping my makeshift spear pinned against the driveway wall with my off hand, I reached down and withdrew the length of iron pipe I had tucked into my belt and began smashing it into the back of the elk monster¡¯s head, its thrashing back it hard to land a good blow, it antlers able to deflect or absorb most impacts, but after Stevenson came forward and took over bracing the makeshift spear, the gap between the workman¡¯s van and the driveway wall to narrow for him to safely get pass, I was able to land a solid blow on the back of the elk-man monster¡¯s head, just above where the spine connected to the skull and the monster suddenly collapsed, like a puppet with its strings cut.
Congratulations!
You have successfully defeated and killed a Mana Abomination. As a major contributor to the fight, you have absorbed a large portion of the Mana Abomination¡¯s lost potential. However, as the system is still initialising, this potential has been refined into experience and will be banked until full system activation.
My grin at finally getting a major contributor was short lived as the elk-man monster slumped to the ground, something behind the door gave slightly and the bald-badger monster was able to pull himself inside followed by immediate yelling and the sound of someone screaming. ¡°Melissa!¡± The kids panicked yell came down from above me and I looked up to see him dart across the top of the workman¡¯s van, having apparently climbed up to get a better vantage, and down the front and started pushing himself sideways through the gap in the door. ¡°Shannon Wait!¡± I cried after him, but it was too late, his thin frame allowing him to squees through. Fuck! The elk-man monster was blocking the door, and it took precious seconds, to drag both it and the beetle headed monster out of the way, and to then force the door open enough to get through against the sounds of a massive battle coming from within. Clambering over what was left of the sofa blocking the front door, I quickly looked over the living room, which appeared to be the scene of a titanic battle with what looked like anything that could have been picked up and thrown smashed around the area just after the door way, the signs of battle and debris of small furniture scattered in a path that led to the stairs leading up to the landing. Stevenson led the way, sprinting up the stairs to find the battle already over, the silhouette of the kid hunched over the body of the monster, repeatably raising his knife above his head before bringing it down into the monster¡¯s back. ¡°Whoa there kid, calm down, you got it, I think it is dead¡± I reached out and grabbed the kid¡¯s shoulder, but he flinched away and turned quickly to face me, knife drawn, the panicked madness of adrenaline fuelled fight or flight filled his eyes before recognition dawned and he relaxed. ¡°Did you get the kill notification?¡± The kid nodded as he tried to slow his breathing. ¡°Then you did good, suicidally stupid going in solo like that, but you managed it and as the saying goes ¡®it is only stupid if you fail¡¯¡± I looked around assessing the scene and noticed that Stevenson was staring down at the bald-badger monster with a grim look on his face, looking down at what he was looking at and my brain seemed to skip as it was unable to process what it was looking at. ¡°Hey Kid, what happened to the other people?¡± Stevenson voice sounded far away as I just continued to stare down. ¡°They locked themselves in the bathroom I think.¡± ¡°Okay, go check on them and make sure they are okay and then clean yourself up, we¡¯re clean up here¡± ¡°Sure Okay, Hey Melissa, Melissa¡¯s parents it is fine now, you can come out now¡± There was a muffled response, but my mind was elsewhere as I just started, and Stevenson slowly reached down and gently lifted up and cradled the monster and headed down the stairs with me just following behind. Outside he found a clean area out of the way area, hidden on the other side of the workman¡¯s van, and taking care to be as gentle as he could, laid the monster out, arms at its side and we both just stood in silence as we stared down at the bald-badger like monster, the small bald-badger like monster, the bald-badger like monster that was still in its pyjamas, the bald-badger like monster that had at one point been a ten-year-old child. ¡°We can never let him know about this¡± I managed to let out in a whisper.