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2024-10-29 19:42:56I read the popup message.
[Fiona would like to challenge you to a duel, this is a non-lethal duel and combat will end when one combatant reaches 10% health and all health is restored after the match ends]"In here? It's awfully cluttered and what about the bond, won't that interfere?""In combat, it's important to keep track of your surroundings and avoid obstacles. And no, because this is a non-lethal duel that both parties agree to, the system will not punish me," she said smiling, her sword seeming to magically appear in her hand."You seem to know an awful lot about how the system handles Life Bonds," I said nonchalantly."Ahem, yes, well, shall we get started?"I groaned but pulled my staff from my ring giving it a twirl to check clearance. Most of my boosts were active as I had gotten into the habit of recasting them as soon as they faded. I cast Flurry and Aura Strike on my staff before clicking accept and a 5-second count
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Mana System In The Apocalypse Midnight callers
Something awoke me in the middle of the night, the room was pitch black and silent. Awaking like this had become a norm for me since the system came into being. Even in this so-called safe town, my nerves were on edge.I lay there listening to try and determine what had awoken me. There it was again, a light clank as the chitin plates knocked against each other. I pulled my weapon out of my ring and rose from the couch as quietly as possible.There was another soft clink from the back door. I glanced at my buffs, noting that Second Chance was still active for another 48 minutes. Good, that meant Fiona's was active still too as I had multicast it after waiting for my mana to recharge before we went to bed. All my other buffs were down so I started refreshing them as quietly as possibleWith Fiona still in my party and within range, she would automatically get my area of effect buffs, I hoped that they would alert her to our guests. Everything was cast excep
Mana System In The Apocalypse Interrupting signals
Whipping my staff up vertically I released a Stunning Gust at our foe. The Assassin must have sensed something as he jumped to the side avoiding the attack, what he didn't count on was Fiona redirecting the attack back at him. The man slumped to the floor and Fiona finished him off with a slice to his carotid artery and a jab through his heart for good measure."Dying sucks," I said, falling back against the wall. I pulled out one of my health injectors and stuck it into my arm. Tossing that aside I pulled out a mana one, doing the same. This was no time to be stingy; we needed to leave in case there were more enemies.We looted the bodies finding a tidy sum of credits over 3000 in total. We took the armor, weapons, and another storage ring that the Assassin had.As we left the house Fiona took point looking out the back door. When she gave the clear signal I motioned her to follow me. I circled the block with Fiona in tow and we ended up across the street
Mana System In The Apocalypse Training Montage
We entered the area around the Bazaar as incognito as possible. My staff and armor were stored in my ring and I had put on a change of clothes. Man, it felt nice to wear clean clothes after so many days.Fiona had argued with me about storing her armor but eventually, I won out, saying that there were enough guards downtown to prevent any shenanigans by the Black Dragon members. She also had a change of clothes, thanks to my neighbor's wife being of a similar build. The clothes were a little loose on Fiona though.There were really only two people we needed to avoid and they were easy enough to spot. Looking around I didn't see the mage or her cohort so we hurried into the entrance tunnel, being whisked into whatever space the Bazaar occupied. I had asked Fiona about it after our first visit but she didn't know much about how the building worked."I'm going to see about getting us some mounts with the coin from selling off our spoils from last night. You s
Mana System In The Apocalypse New Stats
I had no reason to deny the man and pulled the staff from my ring handing it over to him. The man deftly twirled the staff managing to stop it on a dime and switch direction. He then used it to vault into the air doing a corkscrew flip, slamming the end of the staff down on the hard mat. I could hear the staff vibrating from the impact but the man held on and used the added momentum to go into another series of moves. After a few minutes of this, he handed me back the staff. His staff still upright in the center of the room as if unfazed by all the gymnastics happening around it."It is an acceptable staff for this training but I suggest you purchase a war staff you will find it to be much more compatible with the style I am about to show you."I followed along as Trumbo showed me stances. How to set my feet, how to move with my strikes, constantly pushing my opponent, or retreating safely. Then he showed me how to strike out and angle my staff for the greatest eff
Mana System In The Apocalypse The Bond
"These are ravor beasts, while not as fast as a horse at full gallop, they have more stamina for long-distance travel at a faster pace. These are also trained combat mounts so that should help keep both of you safe. They have another nice quirk, they can be blood bonded to a rider. Just know that if you do blood bond with her, that you can never sell her.""Why would I ever sell her, it's every boy's dream to have a dinosaur of his very own," I said all wide-eyed and innocent.Fiona just rolled her eyes at me, "To blood bond you only need to put a drop of your blood in their mouth."I was about to reach my hand up to its mouth and just cut my hand on its teeth but Fiona grabbed my arm to stop me."Best to place the blood on a bit of food and toss it to her, they tend to bite un-blooded people and you would be lucky to only lose your arm."Well, that explained the blinders over the creature's eyes. I took out a piece of dried meat and put
Mana System In The Apocalypse The Matron Task
We located the Matron easily enough; well Fiona did. I was more curious about the market since I didn't look it over the previous day. The woman was in the same spot we found her yesterday."What do you two want? Did you get lost and need help finding your mommy?" the irritable old woman said.Of course, the old lady focused all her vitriol at me and I smartly kept my mouth shut, letting Fiona answer."Greetings Matron Gertrude, we were wondering if you could point us to either the town leader or someone who might know of any local dungeons.""I might be able to do that, what's in it for me, hmmm?""We can certainly pay for the information.""Bah, I have little use for credits. I did hear an interesting story; stop me if you've heard it. About five dead men in a house to the east and one of them happened to be a Black Dragon member," she said, whispering the last part, "See the thing is they are a weed that needs to be plucked if
Mana System In The Apocalypse Draft Doger
It didn't take Fiona and me long to find the Army Headquarters. I think it was all the soldiers outside that kind of gave it away, No, maybe it was the massive dirt-filled sandbag walls; if you could call massive cubes of material filled with dirt sandbags. I assumed they used dirt instead of sand since it was easier to come by. I was honestly impressed, how had they managed to move all these massive walls into place and fill them. Turns out that was an easily answered question, the heavy equipment moving around behind the wall kind of gave it away. Looks like they had more mana engines for those as well.As we approached the gate guards stopped and searched us. Not exactly sure what they were searching for as everything was inside my inventory and it wasn't like they could access it. After a quick pat-down, they waved us through. I just shook my head in displeasure as they went back to watching the gate. I couldn't believe their lax attitude.We approached one of
Mana System In The Apocalypse Of delving And Root
We arrived quickly to the dungeon's supposed location, an area roughly ten miles outside town. We decided to avoid any monsters on the way, which thankfully there seemed to be few of, this close to town. Surprisingly, riding the ravor beast was rather easy and even with my piss poor skill at riding, we made a decent time. Eventually, I got the rhythm of riding my mount down, It was much easier than riding a horse. I just had to adjust to the more upright position the beast ran in. The best part, I didn't feel like I had been beaten up during the ride, like the one time I rode a horse as a teenager."Well, we're where the map said the dungeon is supposed to be, but I don't see anything," I said, slightly annoyed, "I guess we should split up and look around. You go right and I will go left. Meet back here at the stump in an hour.""Sounds, good."Fiona agreed with me and we rode off at a slow pace, to try and find this entrance. After half an hour of se
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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
