Mana System In The Apocalypse

Theory of abilities

Critical strike: You have crushed Sulid Brutilizer's windpipe, suffocating

I had decided to add disabling strikes to my popup messages so I could know the effect and capitalize. This one was pretty easy to see. The creature dropped its spear and clawed at its throat trying to get air. I lifted my staff over my head and with all the strength I could muster brought it down with a loud crack and squelch as liquid dribbled out of the creature's ears and its eyes rolled back in its head.

Critical strike: You have crushed Sulid Brutilizer's skull, brain-damaged

"How are you not dead," I said in surprise.

One more strike across the head was enough to finish the creature off.

"Level tens have a lot of health," I muttered, forgetting Frathsar was here.

"This one certainly did, Must have had a high endurance or some other boosting spell."

I just grunted in acknowledgment.

"What did you hit that one with?" I said, pointing to the one with burns all over it.

Frathsar pulled out what looked like a pistol and waved it for me to see. "Mana pistol," he said simply.

'I needed to get me one of those,' I thought.

"Time to loot?"

"If we are quick about it," he said, looking around to make sure there was no one in sight, "I can store everything in my bag until we are safe."

I quickly tossed everything that wasn't money towards the Merchant and it disappeared into his magic bag. I could really use one of those. The money got automatically split between us as we were in the same party.

"I don't need any of those items if you just want to pay me for my half I'll be fine," I said, prepping to leave.

I had to retrieve the backpack that had dropped off me when I collided with the Sulid.

"That is acceptable," Frathsar said, making a flicking motion towards me as the money entered my account, "I will recast my illusion spell and we can be off."

I took a deep breath, refreshing my short term buffs on both of us since I had easily recovered my mana in the time we spent looting. I also tried something I had been pondering for a few hours and cast Aura Strike and Flurry of Blows on my staff at the same time. I wanted to see if the effects would fade over time if they would stack or remain. The spells took effect but there was no indication on my display for these abilities so I wouldn't know until I attacked again.

"Paul, what are you doing?" Frathsar said in a whisper.

"Just testing a theory with my abilities, why?"

"I can clearly see that, the vacant look in your eyes is a dead give away. It is commonly seen in children of the system when they are accessing their menu. What I mean is, you need to pay attention to the here and now, this isn't a safe place to be going over skills or trying new ideas. Also, you could ask me and I would answer if I have the knowledge." Frathsar said, chastising me.

He was right of course I needed to keep aware of my surroundings.

"Sorry, maybe you could answer a question for me?" I said quietly, not wanting to draw attention to us as we traveled down the street.

"If I can I will, just be quick and quiet about it, please."

I nodded to the scaly merchant.

"I cast two attack skills on my staff and was wondering if they would stack or fade before we ran into any other fights?"

"That is a simple question. Let's stop at the next corner and check it and I will explain."

We got to the end of the block and I surveyed around the corner, no more barreling around corners without looking. It was clear for at least a block down the side street but I could see a group of Sulid moving this way from a few blocks over.

"We have a few minutes at best," I said, pulling back from the corner.

"Very well, that should be more than enough time. If you want to know if your skills are still active you only need to check your cooldowns. If they are not clearing from cooldown they are still active. Also, be aware of stacking too many abilities on a low-tier item at a time or the item may... hmmm suffer catastrophic failure."

"You mean explode," I said, eyes wide.

"In some cases yes, it depends on the abilities that are in play. Opposing abilities like fire and water, for example, would most definitely explode after a short duration. On the other hand, the weapon may just fall apart, of course, other things could happen as well."

"That staff," he said, pointing at my weapon, "While not the strongest weapon is sturdily built and may, may, I mind you, hold up to three abilities at a time. No guarantees though so use caution."

I nodded my head in understanding and quickly brought up my cooldown menu as it wasn't on my H.U.D. to keep my vision clear of distractions. Both skills were grayed out and the cooldown timer was at its full duration of 15sec and 1min for Aura Strike and Flurry respectively. This was good news and bad. I was kind of hoping to cheat the system and use the skills back to back in a fight. No such luck. I moved the two icons into my vision to see if they would stay grayed out since it had only been a few minutes, might as well learn if there was a time limit on this use.

"Alright, let's go," I said after I finished up and checked the corner again. The Sulid had made better time than I had expected and we needed to leave pronto before they got too close and breached the minor illusion.