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Mana System In The Apocalypse Final Destination
The days seemed to blur together as we marched south. It took another three days of walking to clear the massive forest of the Kin. Beyond that were a wasteland of burned-out homes, buildings, and cars. Despite our travel time and distance, we had only just made it to Milwaukee. The city had experienced something apocalyptic, even more so than the System appearing. As very little was left standing, short of a few sections of the highway. We moved quickly around the outskirts of the urban area, keeping an eye out for any possible hostiles.There were the occasional people, that fled at the first sight of our caravan. At first, riders were sent out to capture any survivors. When they never returned the group moved even quicker to clear the area. We were heading between two burned-out buildings along a rural road when we were ambushedScreaming men and women poured from the structures, heedless of their own safety. At least I thought they were men and women at first. As they got closer I
Mana System In The Apocalypse Black Dragon Stronghold
My crafting time was shortly interrupted. I could hear frantic activity from outside the door. I hastily packed away my gear and went to see what the commotion was about. It looked like everyone was packing up and preparing to head out. I could see a new group of individuals by the main entrance talking with Sharla. I decided to make my way over to listen in."Mistress Cotton, so good of you to return. We had thought you lost to the wilds." a man wearing formal business attire said, in a haughty tone.Just looking at Sharla, I could see her ire building. I made sure to stay out of her line of sight.Surprisingly she kept her feelings contained."Yes, well we had some delays. Nothing that I couldn't handle though."The man's gaze roamed over the remains of Sharla's troops. A significant amount had been lost to fighting in the north.The man let out a disdainful snort, "Yes, I can see you only brought back the dregs. Perhaps next t
Mana System In The Apocalypse Trust
followed Sharla to the back of the parking structure where the slaves were housed. There was a cordoned off area surrounded by bleachers of all things. The stands were packed with people cheering on or booing the contestants. Others were watching from the upper levels of the parking structure. Occasionally I would see a light blue flash as a dome lit up. It appeared to surround the arena area, preventing any errant attacks from getting through."I want you to accept ten duels, you are not allowed to heal during the fights. If you lose I am going to be very upset... are we clear?""Yes, mistress."I stepped into the ring, my first challenger approaching from the far side.Carlos Santiago would like to challenge you to a duel, this is a non-lethal duel and combat will end when one combatant reaches 10% health. All health and mana is restored after the match endsBefore I accepted the request I checked his stats.[Carlos Santiago | Knife Fighter | Level 9]The man was sporting two wicke
Mana System In The Apocalypse Three Month later
My team, well, not really my team but the team I was part of hid in the rubble of a collapsed building. We were getting ready to assault one of the Son's of Autumn outposts. This would hardly be my first encounter with the Church as most of us called them. I had plenty of old scars to tell of the fierce fights.Over the months we had steadily pushed the Church back. The acolytes of the church would throw themselves into battle with a singular determination. This made them a dangerous foe to fight but also a predictable enemy.Our goal today was to draw out the garrison force and eliminate them. While I wasn't the strongest or most capable fighter in the slave ranks, I had made a name for myself. When I let my rage out I could dominate my section of the battlefield.My other plans had to be put on hold. Mostly because I never found the free time to work on my crafting. The fighting seemed to be non-stop. When I wasn't fighting I was training in the arena or protecting Sharla. This had
Mana System In The Apocalypse Dissenting opinions
Lady Luck spits in my face again. I was dragged into a room after a severe beating by the watch captain. They roughly threw me to the ground in front of a group of seated people."This is the suspect?"I couldn't see who spoke as I was held on the ground. Not sure why they bothered, they could just order me not to move."Slave, do you know why you were brought before the council?""No, masters.""You are suspected of leaking information to the shadow faction, causing the deaths of four of our members."I suspected something like this might occur. It didn't escape my notice that I was the only slave in all four of the groups that recently got attacked by the shadow faction. The pattern wasn't clear at first but after the third death, it was clear something was off. The fact that I was hauled in front of the council right after was suspect. My guess was someone wanted me gone, or someone wanted Sharla gone since I was her guard."Your punishment for this crime will be death. Captain, pl
Mana System In The Apocalypse Rest period
With the council's demise, it was time to consolidate power for Sharla's father. For that reason, anyone loyal to his faction was kept close at hand. Anyone with an ounce of brain matter kept their head down during this time. I was freed from my patrol duties, and even guard duty as Sharla met with her father most of the day. Her not seeing a need to keep me to guard her now that the council was dead.It was time to try and set the first part of my plan in motion or at least attempt to.What better place to plan the downfall of the Black Dragon sect than the apartment of the sect leader's daughter. Nobody would be stupid enough to come in unannounced. And if Sharla returned she would expect me here anyway.I got to work testing combinations of runes with the one I got from the Kin Kla-ra. Alone the rune was middling at best. It seemed to cause the wearer to grow about ten percent. While that might interest the people who invented Viagara, it didn't interest me. I needed the rune to af
Mana System In The Apocalypse First steps
It took me three weeks to learn Moana's habits and come up with a suitable place to disable her so I could nullify her collar. During that time I learned something interesting.I had a run-in with William Conrad my old handler while we were in the convoy. He was now level eleven, but that wasn't the interesting part. It wasn't even our first run-in since we returned. He took every chance he could get to cause me a bit of suffering. Usually, it was by giving me a command I couldn't carry out immediately, causing the collar to apply its pain when I failed to comply.This time it was something simple. I was mid-step when he told me to not move. My momentum carried my foot forward and I waited, teeth clamped tight in expectation of the pain. He laughed and told me to continue as he walked away. I was so dumbstruck by the lack of pain that I stood there for a bit. I had to feel to make sure the collar was still there, a spike of worry creeping up my spine. No, it was st
Mana System In The Apocalypse preparations
At this point, I didn't trust anyone completely. So I made some preparations before our meeting. To prepare, I needed to make a trip to the Bazaar, which currently sat at the far edge of the city. Nobody controlled that area but both sides would send in raiding groups to try and kill off people coming and going, to prevent them from gaining more gear. The only reason it stayed sort of neutral was its out of the way location.This one remained open all the time so I could hoof it there and back during the night. Even better I had Bella. I stopped in at the patrol building, to check the map of active patrol groups. Nobody questioned why I was there, this was a normal occurrence. I mapped out the path I would take to avoid any unwanted attention. Then headed back to wait for night.When Sharla was fast asleep, I snuck out and headed to the closest border. I knew I couldn't exit via the gates so I had to do a little creative escaping. I looked over the ledge of the ten
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- Mana System In The Apocalypse
Fight For Affection
Was the person in the mirror really Henry and not an international supermodel?Henry could not help but wonder.However, Mia's reaction told Henry that it was not an illusion.Mia's mouth was wide open as she walked to Henry's side in shock. She looked at him in the mirror and was amazed."Oh my God, Henry, I never realized that you're so handsome! Gosh, you look so good."As Mia spoke, she couldn't help but touch Henry's firm chest."Oh my God, these firm pecs are worth dying for…"Henry looked at Mia, who was acting like a pervert. He shook his head helplessly and slapped her hand away."Alright, now that I've changed my clothes, let's hurry to the banquet before we go late. I'm not known for attending any events late." Hearing this, Mia finally came back to her senses. "Ah, yes. We have to hurry over. With such a handsome companion by my side, I'd like to see if those little b*tches will still show off in front of me," Mia proudly said as she pulled Henry's arm.After that, they q
- Mana System In The Apocalypse
Epilogue
Martin strode down the hall of the capitol building with a worried smile on his face. He was a bit greyer now but he still oozed charm and confidence. Time had been kind to him.The city had become a booming metropolis in the ten years since Paul returned, after his year and a half of being missing. Martin knew something had happened because one day a bunch of massive flying ships had come from nowhere and obliterated the ships that had been harassing the city non-stop for over six months. They had quickly taken care of Lord Vik’t and his remaining forces, the man managing to flee back to his homeworld before the Guild caught him.When Paul had returned, he had returned a quiet man. You could see the loss in his eyes. But the man pushed on and his businesses flourished, producing the Earth’s mightiest warships and most advanced runic items. Then five years after Paul returned, he took a fleet of ten of his capital ships and vanished for another year.When he returned again, the ships
- Mana System In The Apocalypse
The devil you know
As soon as the pirates realized the Guild ships were approaching the island, they broke off the fighting and retreated toward the edge of town to dig in. They weren’t stupid enough to attack the Guild but it seemed they wanted to ensure there wasn’t an accidental incident.One of the Guild ships docked and the Captain stepped off to greet the three of us. I had been carried over by Barcos and Em’ah on the same chair she plopped me in the night before. My legs were looking less like mashed potatoes now and instead looked like mushed putty. It was hard to ignore the sensation of the bones moving around within my shattered legs but I was managing.“Captain Paul, I hope this wasn’t a last-ditch attempt to hold off your enemy. I can assure you, we will leave for safer shores immediately if it was.”I ignored the man’s condescending snark before replying. “You have the agreement from the Director?”“I do,” he smiled. “Do you wish to review it?”I nodded and he produced a stack of documents
- Mana System In The Apocalypse
A Valuable Lesson
Groaning, I opened my eyes. All I saw was darkness. I tried turning my head or moving but it seemed like I was pinned in place.I fought down the urge to panic as I evaluated my condition. My arms were still broken, the sharp stabbing pain when I tried to move them told me as much. I could breathe though so my organs had healed after the beating I had taken. That was something at least.Seeing as I was in no immediate danger of dying, I checked my skills. My blood ran cold as I saw what remained of my abilities.[Rejuvenate][Multicast][Eye of the Storm][Aura of Rage][Calcifying Strike]Frostwave][Orb of Darkness][Energy Lance][Overcharge][Tempest Ball]That was the sum total of all the skills I now had. They had stripped me of every ability I had stolen from them along with every ability my second class gave me by default, making it impossible to recover skills by stealing them from others.I let out a morbid little chuckle as I lay there. Tears of frustration leaked from the
- Mana System In The Apocalypse
Unexpected arrival
Those two words seemed to freeze everyone in place, but it wasn’t magic that caused it, it was fear. My body was frozen along with everyone else but my eyes rose into the air, tracking two creatures as they forced the magical fog away from the entire area with some ability.It was hard to tell by their alien physiology but I got the distinct impression they were looking directly at me. The initial fear was subsiding and people were starting to move again until the larger of the two squid-like creatures cast a spell. I managed to get off an Identify before the spell hit.[Ulq | Void Hunter/Maw of the Void | 47/41][Xiph | Psy Commando/Maw of the Void | 45/42]My body shook as I realized they were here for me but not a single person or even the entire pirate armada currently assembled here would be able to kill these two creatures.I felt the spell wash over the area and everyone was frozen again but a halo of golden light burst into existence above my head, washing away the spell’s eff
- Mana System In The Apocalypse
Beachhead
The meager fleet of ships I was now in charge of, rose from the dock and slowly spiraled into the air to get above the mist. The chaotic coloration of the mana storm was visible in the distance even through the mist. That meant the enemy was almost upon the island.The Retribution was the first ship to breach the thick covering and it was no surprise to see the enemy ships had spread out in a crescent shape to surround the island. Enemy fast attack craft zipped toward our location and I double-checked that everything was working as it should. I had also turned the mana accumulator back on.I sometimes wished I had been able to fit multiple layers of shielding on the ship. But my experiments in that regard had not gotten anywhere. Shields that close together acted like soap bubbles. Either they popped completely or merged together, but it didn’t increase the strength of the shield when they did. The only way to prevent this was to have separate bubble shields that only covered a certai
- Mana System In The Apocalypse
The Storm
After weeks of sitting around, the Retribution finally got to fly again.Knowing we were leaving, the harbor was a beehive of activity. Cobbled together crews were drilling aboard the other captured pirate ships. The people knew it wasn’t a matter of if, but a matter of when another enemy would appear.As soon as Khikall got us away from the docks and any possible collision, I engaged the cloak. It was far more effective now that I could enable and disable the automatic recharging system. The massive disruption of mana we used to leave in our wake was now a tiny trail.I hadn’t had time to figure out a way to smooth our passing completely but this would have to do. I also had Em’ah watching for trails from a crudely assembled periscope. Now she didn’t need to be on the deck to use her Mana Sense skill.Speaking of skills… I had picked up a few from the last fight. I also managed to finally hit level twenty in my Maw of the Void class. I stuck two of my stats in Strength, one in Endura
- Mana System In The Apocalypse
Troubled water
I watched as the workers placed the last armor panel in position and began to weld it into place. It had taken a few weeks to repair the damages from our fight but the Retribution was looking almost new.The replaced sections were clearly visible by the heat transfer in the titanium. I could easily fix that when I turned the thermal defenses on. It should make everything a uniform color. Paint would work too, I suppose, but why cover up the beauty of the metal.It was a good thing the ship was complete, over the last few days, we had been getting reports from the Guild merchant ships that were stopping to trade, and they weren’t good.Large fleets of pirate ships spotted raiding islands. The Capital of the Avulian Protectorate was sacked and all of the leadership missing. The remaining fleets of the Protectorate were attacking any ship that wasn’t theirs or the Guild's. Cities burning due to the slaves I helped free, it was madness and it was spreading.Already I could hear concerned
- Mana System In The Apocalypse
Turncoat
Captain Grulaine hissed in annoyance as his second in command handed him his “orders”. His second flinched back and hurried out of the room. If he hadn’t, Grulaine may have cut him down in a fit of pique. It galled Grulaine to be under the thumb of another. He had gotten rid of his father for that very same reason. And now thanks to a series of unfortunate events, he found himself beholden to the damn pirate king Black Gar’s lap dog.How was he to know the repair yard where he went was controlled by that snake. If he had he certainly wouldn’t have agreed to the loan to effect repairs to his cannons and ship. Repairs that had taken far longer than necessary, and left Grulaine on the sidelines as the entire protectorate seemed to be crumbling around him. An opportunity-rich environment he wasn’t able to take advantage of.But that wasn’t the most galling part. He found that his repairs were delayed on purpose so Gar could tighten his stranglehold on the local pirates. By the time Grulai
