Chapter 38: Two Laws of Magic

“Alright, Dianne. Show us the loot!” Claire exclaimed.

Dianne, being the least greedy among us, was trusted with the loot. Sometimes, I envy her for gaining that trust. If they trusted me with the loot, I’d pick out the best ones for myself before distributing the rest of it. Alas, the only trust I gained from my party was my uncanny ability to sense when something’s awry and my tactical mind.

Dianne took out a sack of full of goodies. When the coins made delicious clanking sounds on the floor, our eyes literally shined with golden light because of the sheer amount of gold coins.

“I have a question.” Eric raised his hand.

“What?”

“Are you still included in this loot sharing? I mean, you never contributed anything in our fight against Asharra.” Eric asked as the others stared daggers at him.

“I assume that I am because I am the leader…” I folded my arms. “… And you voted me.”

“Yeah, I voted, but I didn’t vote for you so you can take something on this pile that we worked hard for.” Eric raised his chin and folded his arms in return.

Eric let his greed take him over again. It was this douche attitude of his that I hated the most. He always liked to be at an advantage over others when it comes to material things no matter how little it was.

There was a time in high school that when I bought a relatively new ‘trendy’ phone. When Eric saw it, he bought a new phone too, same brand, but it was the latest model. He waved his new phone in my face and bragged about it as if I cared. I never understood this attitude of him.

“If that’s the case, then, you shouldn’t be included in this loot sharing too.” Claire interjected. “If I remember it correctly, you’ve never dealt a single damage to Asharra. She blocked your first attack and the second one missed. You were swept by her tail and you fell unconscious.”

“Yeah.” Dianne nodded her head. “He doesn’t do his job as a tanker, so he shouldn’t be included in this loot sharing. He’s just full of excuses.”

“What?!” Eric gritted his teeth. “That’s not fair! Do you really expect me to just take all the damage? I could die, you know!”

“If I remember it correctly, you were the one who volunteered for the role.” Melissa smirked. “You’re full of shit, Eric.”

“You’re my girlfriend! You’re supposed to be on my side!”

“Not on this one.”

Melissa pointed her finger at Eric and scolded him. She went ‘historical’. Not hysterical, but historical. She brought up Eric’s past mistakes and scolded him for it like the time when Eric ruined her frying pans. Her blabbering was beginning not to make any sense, so I had to stop it.

“Alright. That’s enough.” I rolled my eyes as I sighed. “All of us will be included in this loot sharing, okay? If you have any objections, you can go and fuck yourself…”

I took out my bag where I kept my equipment. Last night, I was wondering where the rest of my stuff went, but from what they told me, they found me naked and they didn’t find anything. I took out a travelling bag marked as ‘Others’ and I found my mage robe, mage hood, staff, wakizashi, two INT rings and leather boots. It was weird that I managed to get myself naked before Asharra started the ritual. Oh, and I also found bottles of prescription drugs such as Diazepam and Methylphenidate.

Diazepam -Valium

Effect: -2 STR, DEX and AGI. +50 MP for 4-6 hours.

Relaxes muscles and treats anxiety.

Methylphenidate -Ritalin

Effect: +5 DEX, INT and WIS for 3-4 hours.

Treats ADHD. Increases focus and awareness.

Some of you would think that drugs are bad. In my opinion, not all of them, especially when you consider the temporary stat increase. I have to try taking Ritalin next time.

There were also other items that I don’t need; a shield with reflect enchantment and two skill books that I don't need: [Perinnar's Stalwart] and [Water Manipulation]. I put these three items on the pile of loot.

“You don’t have to do that. Eric’s being a jerk.” Beth said.

“It’s alright. This is my contribution.” I gave her a dismissive wave of a hand. “So, am I included in this loot sharing now?”

“Yes, yes, of course…” Eric nodded his head profusely as he stared at the shield.

“Let’s begin.”

We counted the money and arranged the pile of loot in a line. Coins, weapons, armors, accessories and skill books, in that order. We counted a total of 579 Gold Coins, 71 Silver Coins, 39 Copper Coins and a large mana stone. As for the equipment, 2 weapons, 3 armor pieces and 5 accessories. There were also 9 skill books in total. We used [Observe] as we tried to decide what to take.

Long Bow of Serendipity

Attack Damage [Physical] 26-29

Durability: 50/50

Bonus: +5 Luck and Intelligence

A bow used by the legendary thief called The Wet Bandit.

Orcrist Dagger of Leech

Attack Damage [Physical] 15-20

Durability: 70/70

Bonus: Absorb 10% of Damage as HP

A dagger made from Orcrist metal renowned for its dark green color and durability. Enchanted with Vampiric rune.

Flayed Skin of Thresh Bloodfang

Armor Rating: 7

Durability: 30/30

Bonus: Decrease Stamina consumption of melee attacks by 40%

Thresh Bloodfang, the infamous Soran lycanthrope, had his skin flayed as a trophy by a group of elite hunters known as the Flayers. Any man who wears the shapeshifter’s skin shall feel the wolf’s primal instincts.

Orcrist Shield of Thorns

Armor Rating: 20

Durability: 100/100

Bonus: Reflect 10% of Damage taken

A shield made from Orcrist metal renowned for its dark green color and durability. Enchanted with Reflect rune.

Reptilion’s Hands

Armor Rating: 8

Durability: 25/25

Bonus: +10% HP and reduces 5% Damage taken

A pair of gloves made from Reptilion’s skin. Reptilions are beast that thrive in the Vile Swamps. Their skins are said to be as hard as dragon scales.

Our eyes widened in awe as we looked at the equipment. I instructed them that we’ll distribute the weapons and armors first before the accessories. After that, they grabbed the item one by one. I wasn’t even surprised that they fought. Somehow, I already expected it to happen.

“I’ll take the bow.” Melissa snatched the bow on the floor.

“What?!” Dianne handed her a green obsidian dagger. “No! Take this instead! That bow should be mine!”

“But it has INT on it! You don’t need INT.” Melissa pulled the bow away.

“This shield is perfect for me.” Eric said as he held the shield. His eyes were fixed on it since I placed it on the pile.

“No, Eric. You don’t need that shield. You don’t even tank.” Mark said. “That should be mine. I need more protection since I’m your healer.”

“Miguel is already here as our healer. You don’t need that much protection since you’re always on the back and I’m in the front.”

Meanwhile, Claire and Beth silently took the flayed skin and the scale gloves. They agreed to each other that Claire will take the flayed skin while Beth will take the gloves. The others were too busy arguing and they seemed to forget about the good armor pieces.

“You can stop now.” I said, but they all ignored me.

This was the thing that I hated the most in dungeon raids. Back in the days, it was not uncommon for players to fight for the good loot. Many parties, guilds and even IRL friendships have ended just because of virtual items whose drop rates were abysmally low. That’s why Eric and I would always sell the good loots, so we won’t fight for it.

At least my party members weren’t trying to PK each other. A few moments later, they turned their heads to me and they decided to hear my opinion.

“Listen. Are you fine with the flayed skin and the gloves going to Claire and Beth?”

“The what?” Eric furrowed his eyebrows.

“Nothing.” Claire shook her head. “It’s leather armor. It won’t be useful to you.”

Beth nodded in agreement. These girls were too smart for their own good. They managed to hide the good items away before anyone could notice it. Except for me and Richard. We noticed, but Claire and Beth gave us threatening glares. Richard and I looked each other in the eyes as we sighed.

“They can have it.” Mark said as he pulled the shield from Eric. “But I really need this shield.”

Dianne turned her head to me and placed her hands on her waist. “Can you please tell Melissa to get her hands off of that bow?”

“You cry baby. I already told you. This bow would be more beneficial to me. It has INT and I need MP.” Melissa clicked her tongue. “Am I right, Miguel?”

“Tell him. I need this shield!” Mark said.

“By the way, Eric. Where’s your shield?” I asked.

“It’s broken.” Eric shrugged. “That’s why I need a shield.”

“No, you don’t.” Mark shook his head.

“Before you fight and before I say my opinion on this. Let’s take a look at the accessories, okay?”

The four of them agreed as they put down the items on the floor. Dianne lined up the accessories. There were 3 necklaces, 1 ring and 1 bracelet. According to my journal, you can only have up to three enchanted accessories and any more than that won’t work.

Gold Ring of Speed

Durability: 10/10Armor Rating: 0

Bonus: +5 Agility

Increases AGI by a small amount.

Copper Bracelet of Cleverness

Armor Rating: 0

Durability: 10/10

Bonus: +5 Wisdom

Increases WIS by a small amount.

Summoner's Gold Necklace

Armor Rating: 0

Durability: 10/10

Bonus: +20% Summoning Spell Effect

Increases Effect of Summoning Spells.

Silver Necklace of Fervor

Armor Rating: 0

Durability: 10/10

Bonus: +5 Strength

Increases STR by a small amount.

Gold Necklace of Vigor

Armor Rating: 0

Durability: 10/10

Bonus: +5 Vitality

Increases VIT by a small amount.

“I’ll let you have the shield, but I’ll take this one.” Mark said as he took the summoner’s necklace.

“What for?” I asked. “Do you have a familiar?”

“No.” Mark shook his head.

“What are your skills again?”

Mark began to explain his skills to me: [Heal], [Sinestra’s Blessing] and [Smite]. The last two have holy property of magic, which means they’re only effective against demi-monsters such as homunculus and undead. [Sinestra’s Blessing] heals anyone within a 10-meter radius. It will also cause damage to undead and demi-monsters within that radius. It can be used to make holy water, which can cure curses and enchant weapons with holy damage.

[Smite], on the other hand, is an active spell with a passive effect when not on cooldown. I’ve never heard of such skill, but from what Mark told me, [Smite] can obliterate any undead and demi-monsters, but he can only use it once a week and he is required to read a holy passage from his book: The Great Seven while casting the spell. Its passive effect is detection of undead and demi-monsters. One thing I didn’t quite understand was that why would he need a summoning spell item.

“So how does it work, by the way?” I asked.

“The book said something about calling the Holy Light from the Spirit Realm. It says, those who have the power can call this benevolent and formless entity.”

“So it’s a summoning spell?” My jaw slacked in confusion. “I thought [Sinestra’s Blessing] is an alteration spell?”

“Yes, both of my skills are summoning spells. [Sinestra’s Blessing] isn’t an alteration spell like [Heal]. Technically, I use my mana to summon the Holy Light and the heal is just an alteration side effect.”

“How about [Smite]?”

“It’s also a summoning spell. Holy Light comes in many forms. [Sinestra’s Blessing] represents mercy while [Smite] represents justice and retribution.”

“How come [Sinestra’s Blessing] a mercy for the undead and demi-monsters?”

“They represent falsehood and they are false life. Demi-monsters and undead shouldn’t really exist and the Holy Light considers it as a mercy to their existence to annihilate them. Or so the book says.”

Ah, so summoning spells aren’t just limited to summoning and forming contracts with the spirits and creatures of the Spirit Realm. I took out my new notebook and wrote down what I learned about the summoning school.

“Can we get back to the loot now?” Melissa asked impatiently. “How about the bow?”

“In my opinion, you should have the bow and Dianne should have the dagger and the gold ring.”

Dianne and Melissa looked at each other and thank goodness, they agreed. Richard got the copper bracelet of cleverness while Beth got the silver necklace of fervor. The last one went to me as I needed more VIT for our travel. I stored my old necklace in my bag and wore my new necklace. I noticed that my VIT only increased by 1 when I wore the new necklace. Perhaps it was because of the debuff. Anyway, it’s better to have that 1 point increase than zero.

Next, we looked at the 9 skill books that we looted. 7 of the skill books were from Asharra and 2 came from my bag. We inspected them one by one.

Skill Book: Iron Fortress [Active]

Effect: Your skin will be as hard as an impregnable fortress made of iron for a few seconds. Has a fixed 15 seconds cooldown.

Damage Reduction Bonus: +50% + 1% every level

Duration: 5 seconds + 0.10 second every level

SP Cost (fixed): 20% of Maximum SP

Skill Book: Crippling Fear [Active]

Effect: Horrifies the Target causing him unable to move for the duration of the skill. INT, CHA and mastery of the skill of the user will affect the chance of success of the debuff.

MP Cost: ???

Skill Book: Perinnar’s Stalwart[Active]

Effect: Increase the life force of you and your allies around you for 20 minutes. Using this skill without Holy Words will reduce the skill’s effectiveness by 80%

HP Bonus: +10% + 0.50% every level

Cooldown (Fixed): 15 Minutes

MP Cost (Fixed): 10% of maximum MP

Skill Book: Water Manipulation [Active]

Effect: Summon and/or Manipulate Water according to the will of the Caster. MP Consumption and Control depends on the mastery of this Spell and WIS.

MP Cost: ???

Skill Book: Fire Manipulation [Active]

Effect: Create and/or Manipulate Fire according to the will of the Caster. MP Consumption and Control depends on the mastery of this Spell and WIS.

MP Cost: ???

Skill Book: Power Attack [Active]

Effect: Increase Attack Damage of any weapon for each swing. Weapon Damage, STR and Skill Level will affect [Power Attack] damage.

SP Cost: 25 + 2 every level

Skill Book: Track [Active]

Effect: Lets the user track a creature by using mana trails and to identify them without needing to see it. Can also be used to track alchemical ingredients.

MP Cost: ???

Skill Book: Auto-Cast [Passive]

Effect: You can instantly cast melded spells from your memory. Each level of this skill increases Spells that can be auto-casted by 1. If you another spell is memorized when the limit was reached, the new memorized spell will overwrite the oldest memorized spell. To set a spell on auto-cast, say ‘Memorize: [Spell name]’ while thinking of the combination.

Limit of Spells: 1 per every level

Skill Book: Dark Mana Manipulation [Active]

Effect: Manipulate Dark Mana according to the will of the Caster. DMP Consumption and Control depends on the mastery of this Spell and WIS. You can harvest Dark Mana from a source at the cost of MP. However, user cannot create dark mana through this skill.

MP cost to havest Dark Mana ratio (Fixed): 1:1

I don’t know if luck stat really works, but it felt like we hit the jackpot with the skill books. Each of them got hold of skill books. Claire took [Crippling Fear] while Eric took [Iron Fortress]. One skill book that they left out was the [Dark Mana Manipulation]. Since I already got [Auto-Cast] and Richard have already snatched it, I took the skill book for myself.

“Wait. What are you gonna do with that?” Claire asked.

“What do you think? I’m taking this one.” I hid the skill book behind my back, so she wouldn’t snatch it away from me.

“You were infected with dark mana and now you want to play with it?” Claire clicked her tongue and folded her arms. “You never learn, do you?”

“To be fair, I’ve been infected with the dark mana under the control of the Dark Lord. Schmidt was clear about that.” I argued. “Besides, I already have [Auto-Cast] and I might learn how to counter the Dark Lord’s magic with it.”

Claire stood in front of me and reached her hand behind my back. “Don’t be stupid, Miguel. I’m doing this for your own good.”

“How about a vote?” I asked as I grabbed her wrist.

And thus, I called for a vote on whether I get the skill book or not. Dianne, Claire and Mark agreed not to let me have the skill book, while Eric, Melissa and Beth agreed to let me study dark magic in order to let the team have a chance to fight back in case the Dark Lord attacks us again. Of course, I sided with Eric on this one.

“Your vote shouldn’t count!” Claire yelled. “You’re gonna get yourself in trouble again!”

“Why not? This decision concerns me, so my vote should be counted.”

“Wait, Richard hasn’t voted yet.” Eric said. “What do you think, Richard? Should Miguel get the skill book or not?”

We turned our heads to Richard as we waited for his vote.

“Hmm…” Richard tapped his finger in his chin. “I can take the skill book for myself, but I’m not that confident in my abilities, so I think Miguel should have the skill book and risk it. There’s so much we don’t know about the Dark Lord and even God himself doesn’t know much.”

“Why don’t we just ask God?” Melissa suggested.

“Good idea.” Claire nodded her head.

“No, that’s a bad idea.” I shook my head. “God will be angry again if you…”

Before I could finish my sentence, Claire was muttering something on her lips as she stared blankly into the air. I think she was talking to God. I sighed in relief as there was no thunder and it seemed that God didn’t mind talking with Claire. Sometimes, I miss God’s trolling, but now, I can think about whatever I want without incurring his wrath.

“What did he say?” I asked.

Claire clicked her tongue and handed me the skill book with hesitation. “He said it’s a great idea for you learn it. He recommends it and ask you to master it as soon as possible.”

“Will he be able to remove dark mana infection with the skill book?” Mark asked.

Claire paused for a while as she read God’s message.

“Yes, he can. He said that you can do it too with your holy magic. It’s just that the Dark Lord is a god and we are no match for him. He also said not to worry about him because dark mana is just like any other magic. Once you harvest dark mana, it’s yours and infecting yourself with your own dark mana by accident is next to impossible.”

“Anything else?”

“God said that He’s just taking care of things and He will talk to you later.”

It took us the whole morning just to distribute the loot. As for the rest of the skill book, Mark got the [Perinnar’s Stalwart], which is one of the seven holy skills in his collection, Beth got [Power Attack] because all of her skills were AOE skills and Dianne took [Track] because it would help with her scouting. Melissa took [Fire Manipulation] because she wanted to try if she could shoot fire arrows. We decided to keep [Water Manipulation] in case other survivors wanted to buy it, then we’ll split the income.

Afterwards, Eric, Richard and Beth went outside to retrieve their broken armor pieces that they left behind the undead dungeon, so they can repair it and prepare for the journey. Richard had a look of excitement in his face as he wanted to try [Auto-Cast]. Dianne also went outside to hunt for alchemy ingredients with her new skill [Track] while Mark roamed around the school doing his own business of who-knows-what-and-who-cares.

On the other hand, Melissa stayed in the cafeteria and brought out a piece of log and practiced with her bow. With nothing else to do, I stayed in the cafeteria, planning on trying my new skill [Dark Mana Manipulation].

Claire was about to leave when she realized that Melissa and I would be alone in the cafeteria. She glared at me with a narrowed eyes and decided to watch me closely. If you think about it, she didn’t trust me enough to be on my own. Especially when I was alone with Melissa or Beth.

I used [Observe] on Claire to see what changed in her. The last time I checked my character screen, I was shocked to learn that I was already level 37. I was wondering what her level was.

Player: Claire Roque

Race: Human

Level: 29

HP: 550/550

SP: 683/700

MP: 380/380

Status: Normal

Party: Boston Tea Party

Faction: N/A

The last thing I remembered was that her level was 19. One thing I’ve immediately noticed about Claire was the lack of her title.

“Where’s your title ‘Sadist’?” I asked. “I can’t see it.”

“I learned from Schmidt that you can actually hide your title if you say ‘hide title’ then title name, but it won’t work if the person had an expert [Observe].”

“Hide Title: Masochist” I said. “How about now? Can you see my title?”

“Nope.” Claire shook her head.

I can see her HP, SP, MP and Status because we were in the same party. Leveling [Observe] was pretty hard than you can imagine and you can’t just use it on an object, monster or person that you’ve already observed. Seeing the same shit everyday didn’t help either. I think that in high level [Observe], I’ll be able to see monster’s HP, but it would take a hell lot of adventuring to level it up.

Anyway, Claire continued to swing her sword in the air as I took the skill book from my inventory.

It wasn’t my first time using a skill book, but seeing a skill book pixelating and then disappearing never ceased to amaze me. It’s like magic. Well, technically, it is. Seeing the blue screen saying that I learned a skill made me super excited because it’s uncommon for me to learn a skill through [Quick Learner].

You have learned [Dark Mana Manipulation]

Dark Mana Manipulation [Active] Lvl 1 Beginner

Effect: Manipulate Dark Mana according to the will of the Caster. DMP Consumption and Control depends on the mastery of this Spell and WIS. You can harvest Dark Mana from a source at the cost of MP. However, user cannot create nor summon dark mana through this skill.

MP cost to havest Dark Mana ratio (Fixed): 1:1

You have gained a new resource: Dark Mana Points (DMP)

Each point in INT and WIS will increase DMP by 10 and 5, respectively.

I was wondering what the SYSTEM meant by new resource, so I opened my character screen to see what changed in my stats.

Name: Miguel Arevalo Race: Human Level: 37 HP: 144/144 MP: 1752/1752 SP: 60/60 DMP: 0/1400 EXP: 0.04% STR: 4 WIS: 80 AGI: 6 INT: 100 VIT: 10 LUK: 13 DEX: 3 CHA: 21 Satiety: Fine Status Flesh Waste: -80% STR, AGI, VIT, DEX Rested: +10% EXP Undistributed Attribute Points: 10 Title(s): Masochist: +10% Pain Tolerance and HP Perk(s): Leadership: +10 Charisma and increased follower loyalty Tactician: Tactics and Strategies have higher chance of success Mana Affinity II: Increase in Mana Control and +20% MP

Besides HP, SP and MP, I gained another bar called Dark Mana Points or DMP for short. The blue screen indicated that I have 0 out of 1,400. I popped a pill of Ritalin before proceeding because additional INT and WIS will help.

First, I tried to create dark mana by using the skill, but the skill description was true to its word. It wasn’t possible to create dark mana using the skill and I have to get it from an outside source. I also tried to use [Meditate] to gather dark mana, but it didn’t work too. The problem was, where could I get dark mana?

I was thinking of a number of sources. I could try to harvest dark mana from the zombies, but there were no zombies nearby. I activated [Meditate] while skimming my notes for answers, particularly on the part where I met the Dark Lord. As I read my notes, I found more questions than answers. What could be the difference between dark mana and regular mana? Is it just the color?

I had an idea tried to use my skill on Melissa’s [Phantom Arrow]. I was thinking that perhaps the purple color of her arrow could be dark mana. When the arrow appeared, I tried to use [Dark Mana Manipulation] to harvest dark mana, but it failed.

I was running out of ideas, but I remembered something I read from my notes. When I removed Claire’s curse in the clothing store, I noticed that her mana core was white and her core was being filled with dark mana. That was how I came to conclusion that the dark mana inside her was the one causing her illness.

You see, a mana core is always white. Also, I noticed that whenever we loot a monster, the mana stones were always dark purple in color.

Small Mana Stone X 1

With that idea in mind, I took out a small mana stone in my inventory. The small mana stone was as small as a pebble. I inspected the stone closely and I noticed that it has a faint glow inside. To confirm my suspicion, I used [Dark Mana Manipulation] to harvest dark mana from the small mana stone.

Surprisingly, it worked.

I was right that the thing covering a mana stone was dark mana. The solid dark mana turned into a mist as it was absorbed by my body. At first, I was afraid that I became infected with dark mana with what I did, so I activated [Meditate] to see what my mana looked like.

My mana core was still white in color and instead of one core, I now have two. The other one was at the bottom of my white mana core and it was pure black in color. It was tiny and unlike the white mana core, the dark mana core was stagnant and looked like a ball of black smoke, but at least, it wasn’t trying to infect my white mana core and I didn’t hear any gibberish voices.

The mana stone in my hand shrunk in size and it finally glowed with white light. I used [Observe] on the pure mana stone.

Mana Core X 1

I learned that inside a mana stone was a mana core. I was wrong to assume that mana stone was synonymous to mana core. I think that I wasn’t using the full potential of my staff as I just put a raw mana stone on top of it. I didn’t remove the dark mana on my staff because it would shrink in size and it would fall off.

I took out my mana stones from my inventory and harvested dark mana until my DMP was full. Each small mana stone had 10-19 DMP and the medium ones, 48-67 DMP. I didn’t have a large mana stone, so I didn’t know how much dark mana I can harvest from it. I had lots of mana stones in my inventory and the others probably have more.

“Is that it?” Claire stopped and sheathed her sword as she saw what happened. “How do you feel? Are you sure you’re not infected or something?”

“I don’t feel any change. I think I’m fine.” I shrugged.

I began testing the skill as I tried to mix my dark mana with my mana. I was morbidly curious what would happen if I try to infect myself with my own dark mana. Like God said, it was next to impossible to infect myself with the dark mana I own. My mana core repelled the dark mana and there was like an invisible barrier between the two cores.

It got more interesting when I tried to use dark mana with my Arcane Spells. Using dark mana to fuel [Fire Manipulation], I created a flame that was black in color. When I touched the dark flame, it didn’t affect me in anyway. I tried poking the flames with a wooden stick, but it didn’t burn. I was thinking, what a waste of dark mana, but then I realized this couldn’t be it. This was dark magic and dark magic users were ostracized for a reason.

“Can you touch the flame? I wanted to see what…”

“No.” Claire bluntly rejected as she shook her head. “I’m not touching any of that stuff.”

“Why not?”

“Are you seriously asking me that?” Claire clicked her tongue. “I don’t want to get infected with dark mana again.”

“If I remember it correctly, I was the one who cured you and I’m sure I can do it again.”

“I already told you my answer: No.” Claire folded her arms.

I turned around and faced Melissa. “How about you, Mel? Can you please touch the flame? I assure you, it’s safe.”

Melissa rolled her eyes in annoyance as she shook her head.

“Come on, Claire. Help me out. Please.” I pleaded.

“There is one thing that will make me change my mind…“

“What?”

“I’ll help you with this experiment of yours and you’ll help me level up my skill.”

“What skill are you talking about?” I asked. “Don’t tell me you want to cut me up again and grind your [Sadism].”

“Nope.” Claire shook her head. “I want to grind [Charm] this time. Don’t worry, it’s harmless. Unlike your voodoo magic.”

Asking favors with Claire is like striking a deal with the devil. You’ll get anything you want for sure at a seemingly very cheap cost with a lovely smile as a bonus. Only in the end, you’ll realize that you’re at a disadvantage and you will pay the price. I learned that the hard way in college. [Charm] isn’t even an offensive skill and while it looked harmless, my senses were telling me that it would be worse than grinding [Sadism] on me. Good thing I have [Mind Barrier] to protect myself against mind attacks.

“Deal.” I said as I shook her hand.

“Good.” Claire was grinning from ear to ear. “So what do you want me to do?”

“Just touch the flame and tell me what it feels like.”

Claire poked the dark flame with her finger. She retracted her hand as if she was burned, but the look of confusion in her face told me otherwise. She touched it again and we were amazed that it didn’t burn her, nor did it chip her HP away.

“So how does it feel?”

“It’s a bit cold actually.” Claire responded. “Weird…”

I couldn’t tell the effects at first. I willed my mana inside Claire’s body and found that her core was still pure white and not polluted with dark mana in anyway. I used [Observe] on her to check her status.

Player: Claire Roque

Race: Human

Level: 29

HP: 550/550

SP: 700/700

MP: 291/380

Status: Normal

Party: Boston Tea Party

Faction: N/A

I realized that the dark flames were draining her MP. I also noticed a faint white light leaking out of her body, the more she exposed herself to the flame.

“I feel lightheaded.” Claire wobbled on her feet, rubbing her forehead.

“Alright. That’s enough.” I said as I removed her hand from the flame. I used [Mana Transfer] on her to help her regain her lost MP and at the same time, I checked if the dark mana infected her. Again, her mana core was still normal.

Next, I combined dark mana with [Water Manipulation], the water I summoned, as expected, turned black. I poured the dark liquid into a small bucket before I tested it.

The dark liquid had weird properties just like the dark flame. The water looked like tar and it got darker the more I poured dark mana into it. It was also moving like it has a mind of its own. It came out of the bucket as it slowly crawled towards Claire.

Dark Mana Slime Lvl. 1

“You created a slime?!” Claire panicked as she moved away from it. “Kill that thing!”

It seemed that I was immune to the effect of my own dark mana because when I touched it, nothing happened to me. The wooden stick didn’t melt when I tried to poke slime with it. I also tried other things, but same thing. It wasn’t acidic.

Melissa stopped whatever she was doing as the dark slime caught her attention. When Claire was too far for the dark slime to reach, it changed its target and began to crawl towards Melissa.

“The fuck are you waiting for? Just kill that thing already! Quick!” Claire shouted.

Melissa pointed her bow at the dark slime as she lit her [Phantom Arrow] on fire. The dark slime combusted into a dark flame and was obliterated in an instant.

Target Died

I let out an evil laughter as I summoned a larger dark slime.

Dark Mana Slime Lvl. 5

“You’re fucking nuts, you know that?” Melissa shoots another flaming arrow.

-20 HP!

Target Died

Interesting. Not only that I created a monster, but also, Dark Mana Slimes were very flammable just like the normal slime monsters. I can think of interesting melded spells with this one. Much to Claire and Melissa’s annoyance, I created another dark mana slime, but this time, it was just as tiny as my thumb.

I learned that I can use my regular mana with [Water Manipulation] to make it levitate and move it around. After a few minutes, the dark mana gradually became thinner and lighter until it became a clear liquid. I fed it with dark mana again until it was back to its original dark color and thickness.

While I was playing with the dark slime by juggling it into the air, I accidentally flung it to Melissa. Instead of an acid burn, the dark slime burrowed into Melissa’s skin.

“AHHHH!!!” Melissa let out an ear-piercing scream as she ran away.

“Don’t run away!” I shouted. “I can remove it!”

She was hysterical and I couldn’t catch up with her because of my wheelchair. Fortunately, Claire was here with us.

“Calm down. Just calm down…” Claire said as she restrained Melissa. She lifted her up and brought her to me.

I was confident that I can remove the dark mana inside Melissa, but I also didn’t want to waste this rare opportunity to see what the dark mana slime was doing to her body. Besides, Melissa’s mana core had a decent size and it won’t be corrupted that easily.

I’ve watched the dark mana latched on her mana core as I injecting my mana into her body. I’ve noticed the similarity to Claire’s Necrotic Curse. It seemed that it was feeding off her core and the dark mana was using this mana to reproduce and spread throughout the core. After it infected about 30% of her core, I was quite satisfied with my findings.

Obviously, I didn’t want Melissa to die. I used [Dark Mana Manipulation] to forcefully remove the dark mana inside her body and reabsorbed it to my body. This could mean that I can probably harvest dark mana from zombies to kill them more effectively.

Furthermore, I think that I can actually farm dark mana by letting it feed on other person’s mana, then harvesting it before it completely corrupts the mana core. When I harvested the dark mana from Melissa, I noticed that I gained more DMP than the cost when I created it. The only problem with that method was that I don’t think anyone would be willing because of the risk involved.

After I successfully removed all the traces of dark mana from her body, Melissa wiped the tears with her wrist. She stared daggers at me and bared her teeth.

“I’m sorry…” I lowered my head as I apologized.

Melissa clicked her tongue and came at me with heavy footsteps. She was about to slap me when Claire grabbed her wrist to stop her.

“That’s enough, Mel.” Claire said.

Melissa took her bow with her and left the cafeteria. As soon as she left, Claire grinned as she gave me a thumbs up. “Good job!”

At first, I was confused and I thought Claire was being sarcastic. Since this morning, I noticed that she and Melissa were passive-aggressive with each other just like me and Claire. I didn’t know why, but I guess it has something to do with the frying pans or perhaps it was just a girl thing. It was probably the latter though, but it was pretty clear that Claire and Melissa hated each other.

Claire left me on my own and said that she’s going to answer the call of nature and warned me not to do anything stupid while she’s gone. I continued taking notes and experimenting with dark mana.

Mana has two forms: material and immaterial. The mana inside a person is immaterial and even if you cut up a living person, you won’t be able to see the mana core. (Except for the elves, which for some reason, their mana cores are solid and can be seen on their foreheads.) As I’ve done more tests, I’ve began to notice the similarities of mana and dark mana.

Both of them can be material and immaterial. Dark mana’s material form is the dark matter or the dark crystal that surrounds a mana stone while mana’s only known material form is the solidified mana core inside the mana stone. I learned that I can make dark mana crystals, but I can’t make a solid mana.

Mana cores aren’t supposed to be solid. Whenever I look inside my own mana core, I don’t really see a solid stone. It actually looks like a ball of light.

Magical Laws and Theories for Dummies mentioned that most magical scholars believed that mana cores are required for a living being to be sentient. Dogs, cats, fishes, birds and other animals are considered sentient creatures. All creatures with five senses and central nervous system are sentient, but they do not think about their sensations, pains, delights and miseries -- they instinctively follow them. Plants are extremely sensitive in interactions with the outer world, but they are not sentient because they do not see, hear or smell. While some plants and fungi have traces of magic in them like the green herb in Dianne’s potion, they don’t have mana cores.

Humans, elves, dwarves, dragons, dungeons, orcs and other races are also sentient, but we are self-aware and we have sapience or commonly known as wisdom. It’s the ability to use the knowledge that we learned from experience and being aware of our existence are what make us, the sapients, different from beasts and monsters. Therefore, monsters don’t have WIS stat. With the exception of demi-monsters, of course.

Anyway, enough with the philosophical view of magic. Let’s get back to the mana core lecture:

A sentient being is considered alive when it is producing mana in their mana cores. When they die, the mana core will stop absorbing mana from the surroundings, but the book did not explain the process of its solidification and the connection of solid mana cores and dark mana crystals.

From my observation, it’s constantly absorbing “light” outside my body. When it’s full, it still absorbs mana and instead of getting bigger, it releases excess mana. It sounds like it’s wasteful, but I think this is the indication that the creature is still alive.

Thus, I have a theory of my own called “Arevalo’s Mana Absorption Theory” or AMAT for short.

Dark mana and mana are everywhere, but they’re so tiny that you can’t detect it. The only reason why I can sense my mana core was because they are dense. If dark mana is everywhere, then why are we still alive and not infected with dark mana?

While the dark mana is clearly attracted to mana and wanted to consume it to reproduce, I think that mana is constantly repelling dark mana though a barrier it creates, so exposure to a small amount of dark mana is safe.

I discovered this barrier by mixing mana and dark mana. If the balance between them is achieved, given a considerable and equal amount of mana and dark mana, you can see this barrier clearly like a transparent glass. I came up with a great spell with this finding which I will discuss later on.

Too much mana and the mana will repel dark mana causing the dark mana to dissipate into the air. Too much dark mana will cause the dark mana to overwhelm the mana and consume it. I think that this was how I cured Claire of dark mana infection when she was bitten by a zombie. My mana forced the dark mana to be expelled from her core.

When a creature with a mana core dies, the core becomes stagnant, causing the barrier to weaken and letting some dark mana to latch into it, but after a while, the barrier becomes active again. The dark mana and mana will be trapped inside the barrier resulting into a mana stone.

I came up with this theory when I observed the mana of a mouse that I easily caught with magic. I killed it with [Living Matter Manipulation] by forcibly stopping its heartbeat. With my high mana sensitivity from 100 INT, I was able to observe this amazing phenomenon. I killed more mice to observe it again to confirm if it’s consistent.

I also tried to create a mana stone on my own. At first, I thought it was impossible. It was possible, but it took me a considerable amount mana and dark mana and an extreme concentration to pull it off. When I removed the dark mana, the mana core I created would only last for about a second before disintegrating into the air. I think there were still missing processes in my attempt to create a mana stone and I needed to do more study.

I think the reason why my skill didn’t work on Melissa’s [Phantom Arrow] is that, her skill isn’t dark mana nor it is a solidified mana. The arrow is made out of pure energy and it pierces things using heat like a laser beam. It was immaterial pure mana.

Anyway, these are the summary of what I found out about dark mana:

Dark mana is the reason behind the process of mana solidification. (Arevalo’s Mana Absorption Theory or AMAT) The dark mana is neutral and does not necessarily belongs to the Dark Lord. As Schmidt said before, the sinister voices I heard was the Dark Lord’s mana signature and God also confirmed it to Claire. When Claire and I touched the dark mana, we didn’t hear any voices. When used with skills that normally consumes mana or MP, the effects of the skill would be different. Using dark mana with [Fire Manipulation] would drain the target’s MP instead of damaging their HP. The flames would turn into greyish to black color depending on the amount of dark mana used. According to Claire, it was cold to touch. [Water Manipulation] and dark mana was an interesting combination. The result was a creature called Dark Mana Slime. It has parasitic behavior and would seek out hosts to feed off on their mana core. When it consumes the host’s mana, it would grow in size. [Wind Manipulation]: The result was a thick black smoke or mist that moves slowly. I haven’t got a clue as to what it does because it was much harder to control. I had to feed it with my mana to maintain it, so it won’t disperse into the air and the dark mana would be lost forever. [Earth Manipulation] was a disappointment. The result was a black rock that shatters instantly with a slightest touch. Even blowing air on it would shatter it into dusts. When you touch it, it shatters violently with a boom. It does 0 damage. I took the black dusts and make Claire inhale it while she napped. Sadly, it didn’t infect her with dark mana. I suppose this spell could be useful for making distractions.

Of course, I could be wrong all along. All of this can be refuted by the Arevalo’s Two Laws of Magic. First Law: If it can’t be explained, it must be magic and the Second Law: If you can explain magic, then you’re probably wrong.

The point is, studying magic without any books, references or a teacher is like reinventing the wheel or rediscovering how to make fire. I still need to study it more and I should probably add more INT and WIS, so I can use it effectively.

Oh, and I earned another perk for finding out the nature of dark mana by my own.

Perk: Dark Mana Affinity

Effect: Increase in Dark Mana Control

It was already night and I was exhausted from the testing of my new skill. I still have much to learn about the dark mana and I still had a couple of experiments in mind that I wanted to do. I decided to call it a day as I joined the party for dinner. They made a bonfire at the campus’ open basketball court.

Earlier, Eric and the others were hammering their red hot armors on a flat rock. The idea was to weld the pieces back together, but the end result was disappointing to say the least. Their armor became brittle and the durability was cut in half. Still usable, but a good hit would shatter the armor again.

As Dianne came back from the hunt, she bragged and showed us her new bow. It was a modern looking bow with a sight scope. She told us that it was called ‘compound bow’.

Pro Series Tigress Hunter 2018 Compound Bow

Attack Damage [Physical] 34-37

Durability: 60/60

A bow designed for women hunters. Made by Hunter Archery™

“Where did you get that bow?” I asked.

“I’ve passed by a sportswear store when I was hunting for ingredients.”

“And where is this sportswear store?” Melissa stared at the bow with envy.

“Pasig.”

“You went all the way back to Pasig?!” Claire asked, raising her voice.

“Don’t worry. I didn’t go anywhere near the slime dungeon.” Dianne sat on the floor. “I was careful.”

“Did you at least got one for me?” Melissa’s eyes shone with excitement.

“No.” Dianne shook her head. “This was the only good bow I found in the rubble. Sorry.”

“I see…” Her lips turned into a frown.

It got me thinking. Dianne seemed to have unlimited inventory spaces. I mean, we let her keep the loot and she had all the spaces for her alchemy ingredients and her potions. It didn’t make sense since we only have 15 inventory spaces plus one for the coins and you can have additional space for every 30 STR.

“Is there something that you’re not telling us, Dianne?” I asked.

Dianne scratched her head. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I noticed that you can carry a lot with your inventory.”

“Yeah…” Eric nodded. “I noticed that too.”

“It’s nothing.” Dianne avoided eye contact with me. She was good at hiding, but she was never good at lying.

“Come on. Tell us. Did you get a skill? Or is it an item?” Claire asked.

After a few questions, Dianne finally gave in to pressure and she showed us a small leather bag on her belt.

“What’s that?” Beth asked as she looked at the bag.

“It’s a magic bag.” Dianne replied. “This is where I keep all my tools and alchemy ingredients.”

Magic Bag – Med. Capacity

Armor Rating: 0

Durability: 25/25

Bonus: Lets the user carry additional 30 items

A bag enchanted with rare magic that lets the user store more items.

“Do you have more of that bag? I need it to store our food.” Melissa said. “And where did you even get that bag?”

“I borrowed it from Dad.”

“You stole it?” Claire folded her arms.

“No, I didn’t steal it!” Dianne blurted out in defense. “I saw it in his office and I needed it so I can buy more alchemy ingredients. I forgot to tell him about it. I was going to return it, but…”

“But you didn’t.” Claire finished her sentence. “So you stole it.”

“And so what if I stole it?” Dianne said as she pouted her lips. “This is my bag. I found it and it’s mine. Mine.”

Dianne took the magic bag out of our sight and stored it in her inventory, so no one would dare to steal it from her. The others looked at her with sour expression as they ate their food seething with jealousy. I can’t blame them. It was an item worth coveting. I was also jealous and I wanted the bag for myself too. Anyway, Dianne assured us that we can ask favors of safekeeping our items if we ever ran out of space. Only if we ran out of space. Period.

As we ate our dinner, we sat and gathered around the fire and I told them what happened when I was alone. I told them how I lost my hand and my eye and everything I learned about the Dark Lord and how he tortured me through my dreams and hallucination. To tell you the truth, I think I was lucky that I couldn’t remember that part. If not, I’d probably be that rampaging insane mage of my nightmares.

“It’s okay, Miguel.” Dianne said as she rests her head on my shoulder. “I don’t think you’ll hurt us.”

“I’m not so sure.” I shook my head. “You begged me for mercy and I killed you in my dreams.”

“Well, it’s not real.” Beth shrugged. “Good thing it’s just a dream, no?”

“Yeah, I guess…”

The others then told me their side of the story. Apparently, after they buried Sir Gerry’s snare drum, they received a quest from God, telling them to save me before it was too late. They also met Daria Swann on the way and Dianne became a hater because she was, according to her words, a selfish, pompous bitch.

Dianne was the one who told their whole story. She was a horrible story teller and their story became uninteresting and boring.

The only thing that caught my attention was the part when they killed thousands of zombies by making an improvised explosive. I never thought it would be possible to create a bomb because the SYSTEM already disabled any modern technology and that includes modern weapons and explosives.

“So how did you create a bomb?” I asked.

“Remember the Fucking Rock?” Eric smirked as I nodded. “Well, I didn’t get rid of it like you asked me so I kept it. I even bought more from the black market in Camp Aguinaldo.”

“What?” My voice suddenly raised. “What the fuck were you thinking? You could have gotten us killed!”

“Huh? You almost had me killed this afternoon and you’re telling him that?” Melissa scoffed.

“What do you mean?” Eric asked.

Melissa pointed her finger at me. “He infected me with dark mana, so he can study it! He used me as guinea pig!”

“I already said I’m sorry, but I really didn’t mean it. It was an accident. I swear, it won’t happen again.” I said in defense. “And don’t worry, Eric. I made sure that I removed all traces of dark mana in her body. She’s fine now.”

“Asshole.” Melissa murmured as she rolled her eyes.

“I gave her some holy water. Don’t worry.” Mark added.

Eric forgave me easily as he sighed in relief, but Melissa was still angry at me. The mood of the group became better as they began to tell horror stories. What a great timing! We were in a school where lots of people died and turned into zombies. Most of the victims were children, but Schmidt has already cleared the whole campus and put a barrier on the gates to protect us from undead.

After the others told their supernatural encounters in the past, Mark told us that Schmidt didn’t kill everything and he was the one who finished the job. I didn’t know if it was true or it was just a fake story to scare us, but he said that the children’s ghosts could not move on to the afterlife and haunted the school. He performed exorcism and blessed the school with his holy water in order to send the restless spirits to the Palace of the Forgiven, which is Sinestra’s domain in the Spirit Realm.

“So that’s why I heard kids playing outside.” Melissa said, wrapping her arms around her. “I thought it was just my imagination.”

“Wait a minute.” Dianne put her finger on her lips. “I thought Mark was just joking?”

“I wish I was, but it’s true. Those children died horrible deaths and they were thankful when I put them to rest.” Mark sighed. “Don’t worry, I made sure that everyone was put to rest.”

I didn’t believe in ghosts, but now, I think I should, since everything has changed. We fell quiet for a while and we became paranoid. Not of monsters, but of ghosts. While monsters can kill you, the fear of the unknown is stronger than fear of death. You can see a goblin’s arrow coming, but you can’t see the cold pale hand that is going to touch your shoulders.

That night, we slept together in the same room, which I hated the most. I even had to put up with Mark’s loud snores and Eric and Richard’s teeth grinding. I went back to the cafeteria to do more experiments with dark mana. I was thinking that it would be the best time for me to study since I could use some silence and moreover, there would be no distractions.

I took out my notebook and continued to study with dark magic. I was thinking of melded spells that would go along with it, but something bothered me. Like I said, I wasn’t superstitious or anything, but I felt like an eye was watching me. My heart raced when I thought of the possibility of the Dark Lord attacking me again.

“BOO!”

“AHHH!” My heart felt like it skipped a beat. When I realized that it was just Claire, I sighed in relief.

“Hahaha! You should’ve seen your face!” Claire laughed. “Gosh, my stomach hurts. Hahahaha!”

“Don’t do that again!” I clicked my tongue. “I almost killed you!”

“Pfft… I doubt that. So what are you doing here all by yourself?”

“I can’t sleep.” I responded. “I thought this would be the best time to study dark magic. How about you?”

“Well, I can’t sleep too.” Claire shrugged.

As I read my notes, Claire took a chair and sat in front of me. She stared seductively with a smile on her face. Although we weren’t saying anything to each other, it was distracting and I felt uncomfortable. It was as if her eyes were stripping me. After a few moments, I had to say something because I was running out of patience.

“Stop that.”

“Stop what?” She asked without breaking eye contact.

“Stop staring.”

“I’m not doing anything.”

I let out a sigh as I moved back farther from her. Claire moved her chair again and sat in front of me.

“Hey, how about you fulfill your end of our bargain?” Claire said with a grin. “Right now.”

“Not now.” I shook my head.

I suddenly felt a pressure on my mind. I looked at Claire and her eyes were glowing. I instantly recognized what she was doing. She was trying to use [Charm] on me. Fortunately for me, it wasn’t working because of my skill [Mind Barrier].

“Why isn’t it working?” Claire scratched her head in frustration. “What’s wrong with my skill?!”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged as I flipped the page on my notebook.

“You know I always try to use my skill on you even before you had that mind barrier skill or something.”

“What?” I blurted out in surprise.

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Remember when I first used my skill on you? Back in the restaurant? It used some of my MP, but it didn’t work. I did it again and again to distract you whenever you were meditating, but it didn’t have any effect on you.”

“And so?”

“Do have another cheat skill on your sleeve?” Claire squinted her eyes.

I shook my head. “None that I’m aware of, at least.”

Claire kept on using [Charm] but after a while, she gave up as she ran out of MP. “Hey, can you give me some of your MP? I’m almost through your barrier.”

“Fine.” I gave up as I used [Mana Transfer] on her. Claire would probably nag me endlessly if I didn’t comply.

“By the way, God talked to me earlier.” Claire said as she continued to use her skill. “And I found it disturbing.”

I closed my notebook and turned my attention to her. “What is?”

“You know I tested my skills on Melissa, right?” Claire asked and I nodded. “Well, when we were in Camp Aguinaldo, you were sleeping with your eyes open. Dianne saw it too. It’s weird that you had the same look as Melissa when she was under my illusion. It’s even weirder that Asharra dropped the skill book [Crippling Fear].”

“Go on.”

“I think that [Charm] and [Crippling Fear] are the cause of your nightmares.” Claire continued.

“Are you saying that you’re the one causing my nightmares?” I looked at her with suspicion. “You said it yourself that you always try to use [Charm] on me.”

“Of course not. You wouldn’t be talking to me right now if I’m working for the Dark Lord. I mean, I talked to God about it.” She shrugged.

“Seems fair.”

“You mentioned that when you were alone, you didn’t have any nightmares but when you met Asharra, the nightmares came back, am I right? That means…”

“That means one of us is a servant of the Dark Lord.” I said as I finished her sentence. “Or could be the Dark Lord in disguise.”

“Well, Dark Lord in disguise is unlikely. I know you’re suspicious of me, but I’m probably the person you can trust the most.”

Right.

I’ll fucking hate it if it turns out that she’s my true enemy. I guess Schmidt would’ve already killed her and she wouldn’t be God’s contact. But did God really contact her? What if she’s lying? What if Schmidt wasn’t really God’s servant, but the Dark Lord’s?

That scheme would make sense and it would be the easiest way to gain my trust. But then, why would Claire make an effort to restore my memories?

“Anyway, I asked God if he can access the memories of all our party members. I told him that I suspected that one of us serves the Dark Lord.” Claire explained. “Well, He did and I was right.”

“And?” I clenched my fist in anticipation. “Who's the traitor?”