Mana System In The Apocalypse

Here Goes Nothing

I did manage to catch up to the merchant, or what was left of him and his cart. The trail of black smoke is what drew me off the road and towards the grisly scene. I had hurried over to see if I could offer assistance to whoever was in trouble, forgetting for the moment that there were dangerous creatures about. It appeared he tried to flee from something. The large area of the burned field around the remains attested to that.

'God I hope a dragon didn't do this,' I thought, scanning the sky.

It didn't take me long to piece the scene together. The dozens of odd tracks leading to and around the site spoke of a desperate flight and last stand. Not of some magical aerial predator. The only reason I knew it was Frathsar were the few bits of unburnt carriage that poked through the glowing pile of ash, still sporting the flamboyant colors from his cart that I remembered from when I first spotted it. I poked at the pile with a stick but only produced ash and bits of wood.

"Rest in peace Merchant Extraordinaire," I said turning from the scene.

Burying the dead would have been the right thing to do but I didn't want to get caught out here by whatever had caught up to the merchant. No matter how much I liked him. He was gone and I was still very much alive and still very much not safe.

From this point forward I decided to shadow the road. The tracks of the killers heading directly back to the road at a southerly direction had nothing to do with it, at least that's what I told myself. This was a tougher hike but allowed me to flit between the sparse clumps of trees on the far sides of the unplowed fields.

The land had changed again and now more closely resembled the farmland I had expected to see on my journey south. I also spotted a few burned-out cars and houses along the way. Although, I was too far away from the road to see any bodies and I would keep it that way for now. Despite this, I knew there would be dead along the road or near the burned out houses. Whatever had killed Frathsar had come through and torched everything they came across. This spoke of some semblance of intelligence so I needed to be careful.

After about an hour of hedgerow hopscotch I spotted the culprit of the fires, or should I say, culprits. There appeared to be a group of about twenty humanoids walking down the center of the road with a few pulling a large wagon. When they neared a house a group would split off and break down the door. I assumed they ransacked the building before burning it down, rejoining the rest of the group, and continuing on to the next.

There were a few pops when the beasts were inside one of the houses which I assumed were gunshots. The creatures returning a few minutes later carrying some items none of the monsters appearing to be wounded. I looked farther down the road and could see what appeared to be people fleeing in the distance. I did hear a couple more gunshots and it looks like someone had managed to actually hit one of the monsters before the group of monsters screamed and rushed the unlucky individual.

From my experience guns didn't seem to be all that effective in this new system, probably because they had no way to gain damage like my staff unless you hit a critical spot because they weren't tied to an attribute. Even the damage boost that they got from the velocity of the round was muted by even minor armor or thick skin. I noticed the group left the injured monster behind and I choose this time to see what I was dealing with.

I crept up to the prone monster with all the stealth of an elephant but it didn't seem to mind. I guess being unconscious would sap the worry of unseen assassins from you. I could see the bleeding wound on its head, looks like the bullet had grazed it leaving a nice gash but failing to pierce the frog man's skull, instead only glancing off and knocking the beast unconscious. I didn't know how long it would be out so I hurried along, quickly looking at it with Identify.

Sulid | Warrior | Level 7

These creatures resembled giant toads, with wide fat heads and body, with skinny legs and arms that only helped to define the ropy muscles underneath.

"Never skip leg day," I said bringing my staff down on his head repeatedly until I saw the XP notice. It took more blows than I would have liked and I decided to try and avoid any melee combat with these creatures at my current level.

The creature had dropped its weapon when it was shot, a dirty looking short spear with a green sheen on the blade. It was most likely poisoned so I left it alone. I really needed a larger storage item I was missing out on so much loot. I quickly looted the creature's body, taking a moment to go over my haul.

30 credits

Poison vial

Iron dagger

Unfortunately, my luck didn't hold and the creatures spotted me as I made my way through the field. A smaller group broke off to chase me down.

'Shit, time to go.'