“Meow!”‘Hm?’Jason looked at Nyx who was curled into a ball. She seemed to be talking in her sleep.‘Is it because of Mana?’About a year ago, after one and a half years since the simulation started, Mana started to slowly return to the world. Although it was a slow process and people might not even feel Mana at the moment, Jason saw it coming and he felt it. Each day he felt the slight breeze of Mana, brushing off against his skin like a passing wind. Sometimes it lasted for hours while sometimes it just blew away from him in a haste. Either way, Jason saw Mana entering the world from the distant sky, and it gave him the idea that Mana wasn’t something belonging to a world. It could be a universal thing that existed everywhere. He had no idea how long would it take to fill back this entire world with Mana, but he felt it could be decades or centuries, yet he had a hunch that it would happen. As for why Earth didn’t have it, he wasn’t sure. However, Jason assumed that the invaders
“Should we go up?”“I guess he is coming down.”Norma looked at the spiral stairway with expectation. The first floor of the building looked completely different from what they saw a week ago. It was clean and had no debris left. There were several chairs and desks in the corner they hadn’t seen before. It was apparent Night Hunter had prepared this floor as their training ground. They arrived at District 15 as soon as possible in the morning to show their agreement to the conditions given by Night Hunter for the cooperation. It took their chief and the council over two weeks to agree to the conditions written by Night Hunter on further cooperations, but the things humans received as benefits were too tempting for anyone to give up. Night Hunter even promised to offer them Mana Breathing, a long-lost technique of accumulating Mana inside the human body. However, his demands included some very sensitive things for them; advanced mechanical knowledge, stationeries and some power sou
“Good morning, Norma!”“Good Morning, uncle!”Norma greeted the elderly man with a bright smile. ‘They are getting old.’She felt sad when she looked at the bright smile the older man had. The people she knew were getting older, but Norma knew these people were happier than ever. She walked along the street toward the sage tower. The massive cylindrical building looked drastically different from what it had been twenty years ago. It had a fresh coating of white paint, and their engineers completed the repair work about five years ago. Once they called this place the lair of the Night Hunter, but people now called it the Sage Tower. ‘I can’t believe it has been twenty years.’Norma stopped in front of the building and looked up at the clear sky. The sun was no longer red, and some species of birds they released back to the world had taken a liking to the new environment of City Z.The streets around the sage tower had no traffic, but District 15 was the most occupied region of th
“Meow!”“Yes, I know it is spreading!”Jason stared into the night sky as he spoke with Nyx. “Meow!”“What do you mean, I am changing? You are still the same size after twenty years.”“Meow!”“No! I am improving.”“Meow!”“It is not a skin rash!”…He looked at the changes happening to his left arm, and he knew this had something to do with the overconsumption of monster meat.The skin on his left arm felt smooth, but it wasn’t fragile. He didn’t know why there were patches of light that looked like stars. He did not know where they came from or what they were, but these patches brought him the name; star sage. ‘Sigh.’Jason phased back to his room, leaving behind Nyx to her thoughts.He touched the painting he started for the tenth time. It was Hanna and Amelia, waiting for him at the village gate.He knew he wasn’t a great artist, but he wanted to draw it as perfectly as possible. ‘I guess this one won’t do.’He ripped off the drawing paper in dissatisfaction, but he didn’t damag
“Damn! That was difficult!”Jason sat on the massive body of his enemy as his skin reattached itself, closing the wounds and burns. He felt the bones repairing themselves as he rested his tired body. His black blood seeped out like tar onto the ground and solidified the moment it touched the ground.‘How can this arm be so strong?’He knew it was his fault that he was in this state. He underestimated the enemy, thinking it was just another prey. ‘Did my thinking change with the mutation?’Jason fell into thought as he looked at the massive broken sword. Of course, he knew his thinking had changed with the mutation, but he thought he had control of most of his emotions and thoughts after this long. Still, it seemed to be not the case, and he behaved like a predator who was hungry for power like this. Jason knew he could maintain his rational thinking at the time, but bloody battles seemed to bring out the monster within him.This battle reminded him he had to take control of his emot
“We are thirty kilometres away. Hold on.”Amber held onto the railing as she looked at the map. It was difficult with the rocky ride they had. ‘Please, Norbert. Don’t crash.’She prayed after yelling at Ricardo and Esmerelda. Amber saw how scared they looked, and she couldn’t blame them. This was one of the most crucial missions, and they already lost six members during their journey. ‘This is what we signed up for.’The people their government selected for this mission were those who didn’t have any family or significant other to mourn for their loss. The reason was simple; no one knew if this mission would succeed or if they could survive.According to their captain, this was the most dangerous mission and one of the most crucial missions for their Camp El-mond. About two years back, they found traces of human activities around City Z.About ten years back, their people successfully made connections with their old satellites, but they never detected another group of humans until
“Mhm!”Amber moaned when felt the light entering her eyelids. She wanted to rest a bit more in this comfortable place.“I think she is waking up.”‘Huh?’Amber realised the voice she heard didn’t belong to anyone she knew.“Where… Where am I?”She slowly pushed her heavy eyelids open, and she saw a kind-looking older woman looking down at her. There were a few other women in the room, but they backed away when she woke up.“You are in the central treatment centre of City Z.”“City Z….”It took her another moment to digest those words, and then her eyes widened when she remembered all the events that happened to them. All the deaths, pain, and misery flooded her mind, and her eyes became red.“Others… Where are the others?”Amber shot up from her bed, but the pain assaulted her side.“Argh!”She whimpered in pain.“Take it easy. There are a few fractures in your ribs. The others are okay. Your driver has a concussion, but the other two are in better condition. They are waiting outside.
“What do you guys have?”Amber got comfortable in her seat as she ate her breakfast.They found no signs of the people of City Z spying on them, and they became more comfortable after a week of staying in this place. City Z was returning to the condition before their world became a target of an alien invasion. These people planted crops and reared livestock inside the city. They had some production facilities to produce daily necessities for the people, but some of these products made Amber puzzled. One of the most popular items in the city was cold weapons, and swords had astronomical values. She knew people in this city used cold weapons, but she had no idea why they would be so valuable compared to their advanced weapons.‘Is it because they are not available for sale?’She thought of a possibility, but there was another problem. Why did these people want weapons, anyway? There were no threats in the surrounding area, and there were ample guards.“The claw marks are real. They ar