One would think I would have more important matters on my mind. I mean given what my group just went through, right? Not to mention the horribleness these women have been through for the last few weeks. Truthfully, however, carrying a woman so closely in my arms 50 feet in the air proved to be more distracting than I thought it would be. I may have refrained from smelling Silvia's hair like some creep in a low budget porno, but there was no denying that she was all woman, while I was all teenager.

That's why it was almost a relief when I noticed we were about to die.

A rough calculation on my part, even before jumping off the roof, said two and a half minutes of flight time. I can only assume the extra weight of an additional person was the reason I was almost empty of MP after only a minute. Well, maybe another 30 seconds, if we were lucky.

"[Slow Fall]." I say quietly.

"huh, you say something?" Silvia asks me.

"Just testing something, This is less U.S. Air and more falling with style, at the moment."

The panic on Silvia's face would have been comical if I wasn't genuinely worried about putting us down safely.

But it did work, I could feel the energy needed to keep us in the air ease and the MP drain followed. I spread the [Ice Wings] wide and let us glide past the fence, over the road and into the grassy field before we land more or less intact. It could have been smoother, but the flying had me posed more like superman and less like a Super Saiyan. That made it awkward to try and carry someone, much-less try to land with someone. Next time, I'll have to try to flare the wings before landing. Catch a back-draft or something and try to get my feet under myself properly.

Silvia slips from my arms as we come to a rest but no harm done. I apologize as I lose the wings and check my status.

Status Name Leon Level 18 Health 312/447 Mana 158/1311 Stamina 214/336 Strength 39(43) Intelligence 89(113) Dexterity 26 Agility 30(32) Wisdom 20(34) N/A - N/A - N/A -

158 MP left, honestly not great, but could be worse. Despite the low number there, it would only take 20 minutes or so to recharge fully while walking. My HP on the other hand would take somewhere around three and a half hours. My STA four hours or much more actually while walking. Not that I could complain, I had a general idea of what a mage class would mean, even if it was all assumptions at the time.

I make sure Silvia is alright to walk, then check myself. The agreed upon route back to the village from here is to follow the river through fields and through a few warehouse back properties. We avoid the major and minor roads as well as just about any concentrations of people. Given the number of low level women with us, we would be a target otherwise. By monsters of all kinds. It would also separate us from the monsters of the woods the rest of my group had to battle to get here.

After Silvia dust herself off, we start a fast walk to catch up with the others. She seems a little wary at first, but I suppose my first impression wasn't the best one. Then again I did help rescue her so I'm not sure how annoyed should I feel.

She's white, mousy brown haired and brown eyes lighter than Emmy's. Where Emmy, Sophia and Claire are clearly girls though, Silvia is all woman. A young woman, but woman nonetheless. I place her age at maybe early 20's. I'm not stupid enough to try and flirt with her, but I occasionally fall back to enjoy my preferred view. Fit but not as much as Jenny.

"Where are we going anyway?" She asks me after a few minutes.

"We have a safe place set up where monsters can't attack. We're building a home there and rescuing who we can while we're at it."

"What about the government? and my family?"

I fill her in on the state of the world as we know it, while we walk. There isn't nearly as much to say as one would think. No, we don't know how much government is left. No, we don't know how many people are alive. No I don't know where you're family is. No, I don't think the city is safe. Honestly it was a bit disappointing to realize just how much we didn't know. I may not have cared about most of it personally, but it was information, and having a lot of that was key to my survival strategy.

The walk is a little depressing after that. Silvia practices what little magic she has, which seems to consist of summoning some sort of man-tiger with a sword and shield. It's only two feet high and she can only hold it for a few minutes, but at level two, it aint bad. Low level [Rodentia] and slightly higher level [Storm Carp] crawling from the river keeps her on her toes. I won't gain much EXP from them so I leave it to her.

We eventually see my group and the girls not too far ahead of us. Neither they nor us have manage to travel as quickly as I would have liked, but given the terrain while travelling the banks of the river... Still it's safer than the roads, which are filled with people and monsters it would be impossible to get through safely. Still, it took about four hours to journey to the plant, but should only take three or so to get back this way.

Jenny spots us first and waves. Something falls from the sky and lands on her head. I see that it's Argent when we get closer. He's asleep on top of her head and even I can tell very tired. Zoe is looking with big eyes from Jenny to the cat and back, while Jenny pretends not to see. Mr G is smiling slightly but mostly watching our surroundings. Julia walks with my group, just seeming happy to be outside.

"What's wrong with him?" I ask her.

"He's been scouting for us. There's more than just these low level mobs out here. Nothing me and you can't handle but an ambush could hurt some of the girls."

"Scouting huh? you got a new ability?"

"I didn't," she smiled, "Argent did. I can see what he see's when he wants me to."

I raise a brow at that but it's whatever. I have no expectations in this new world so if she was expecting to surprise me, good luck.

"Before I forget, though..." Jenny says as she takes Argent from her head. She hands him to her sister and despite what I was just thinking, surprises me when she jumps at me and wraps her arms around me then plants a kiss on my lips. I feel tongue briefly before she pulls back and looks me in the eye.

"Thank you."

"Your welcome." I respond automatically. My skin is too tanned to show a blush easily, plus I'm not easily embarrassed but, yeah, I admit, I didn't see any of that coming.

"Where's my thank you kiss?" Mr G asks laughing as Jenny lets me go.

She looks at him quizzically, "Did you want one?"

"Not my type," He winks at her, "I'll trade mine for a heartfelt hug though."

Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out how I was going to deal with this new development. I wasn't nearly as clueless as everyone seemed to think I was. I've been well aware that Jenny was starting to develop feelings for me. That only seemed natural given my movie star good looks, fancy cars and mansion on the hill. Or since we've been killing things and avoiding death together.

I've grown very fond of my group, which is why I really wanted to get away from them. Which was why I really needed to stick with them. Heh, you don't grow up without real friends and family and expect to be alright with type of thing. Still this was a problem for later. I moved myself to the outskirts of the group, ostensibly to keep an eye out for approaching monsters. Really though I needed to think about my magic.

I was having decent success with learning more about it, but something was off. I held a [Fire Shot] up in front of my face. This was what I meant, I could fire it or I could hold it, but I couldn't have it float around me or return to my hand or anything else. The problem was it should be quite possible, it should in fact be pretty easy given the lack of effort involved in using skills and magic in this new world.

[Mage Sight] showed the obvious red mana of fire with the clear mana I couldn't identify surrounding it. Keeping it intact and in shape, hmmm. Firing it involved a flash of purple mana in the direction I pointed it. I'm thinking the purple is some sort of energy mana, maybe. My [Mana Shield] is largely clear and purple mana too, with millions of dots of other colors. What are they?

Wait! What are they!? I am such an idiot, I have a skill for that. I just didn't think to use it in conjunction with [Mage Sight].

'Identify' I think at the clear mana holding my [Fire Shot] together.

Raw Mana

Magic in its purest form, use to handle, power and shape the other elemental representations Affinity n/a

Excellent! And something so drastic I couldn't help but notice. My experience went up by a chunk. At least 5% at level 18. Just how important was it for a mage to know and understand Mana then? I could only think 'very'.

We have been walking long enough now to reactivate my [Mana Shield]. It's the best way to see the purple mana, the ones in the air are too far to focus on.

Mana [Force]

Magic representation of [force] Affinity 79%

I get really excited now and turn my sight back to the red mana in [Fire Shot].

Mana [Fire]

Magic representation of [fire] Affinity 18%

Interesting, 18% affinity for fire, huh. Guess the path of a Pyromancer will be difficult unless I find a way to raise my affinity. I go ahead and identify the rest of the mana that I can. I finally learn my affinities when I do.

Earth - 81%

Fire - 18%

Water - 93%

Air - 6%

Light - 11%

Dark - 79%

I'm not sure what affinity really does, I can take an educated guess, but the low percentages on Air, Fire and Light hurt a little. A little experimenting shows me one more interesting bit of information.

Mana [Lightning]

Magic representation of [Lightning], of the [Air] Element family Affinity 6%

So then, my affinity for sub-elements equals that of the main one too. Looking at my [Ice Wing] for a second confirms that my ice and water affinity are the same. After all this I've gain a nice chunk of EXP and I guess for a mage, Knowledge really is power.

There's one more thing I haven't had time to try, but now that I have a better understanding of the material I'm working with...

I form a [Fire Shot] in my hand. I study it closely. repeatedly I watch it form and let it dissipate. It is very fast and I struggle to slow down the process. combining that with [Haste] and [Mage Sight] lets me understand what is happening.

The raw mana forms first into a sphere then sucks in the fire mana from the air. Then more or less 'poof' a [Fire Shot] is formed.

I must look very silly for the next half an hour. From the point of view of every one else I'm using [Splash] and shooting it with a [Fire Shot]. But from my point of view I'm using one of my slowest forming spells to draw water mana to myself, then trying to get the [raw mana] sphere to pull it in, instead of the [fire mana]. Getting the timing right is hard, getting both spells to go slow enough to meeting at the sweet spot is harder.

But eventually...

Skill Acquired Mana Manipulation

Nice! I almost can't believe that...

Spell Acquired Water Shot

I suppress a smile as I walk back to my group. I haven't told them about my mage sight because I thought it was fairly useless. But I also wouldn't have said anything anyway regardless, I both trust them and don't trust anyone. It may be a strange dichotomy, but that's me in a nutshell.

"Sorry, if I embarrassed you." Jenny apologizes to me as I approach. She seems a little upset. Was she thinking I went away because of that?

"It was a little embarrassing, but don't worry about it." I reassure her. "There are worse things in the world than getting a kiss from a pretty girl, I think."

Even with her complexion, the blush is apparent.

"You think I'm pretty?" She asks me, with what can only be described as text book girl flirt.

I don't need or want this right now, I'm already tied too tightly to this group as is. Too many poor decisions are made when when people care more about each other than results. But I also know my cynical self is not the best when it comes to other people.

"Are you not?' I ask her dispassionately. "Your features are symmetrical and attractive, you're fit, strong and dependable. What's not appealing about that?"

I look at her quizzically, as though I don't quite understand what she was asking. I have to work hard to ignore the disapproving glances from both her sister and Mr G. Her sister doesn't know me well enough to know if I'm really that stupid, but I think Mr G knows what I'm doing, and doesn't like it. He hasn't trust me fully from day one. Not that I can blame him. I really don't trust myself either.

Jenny seems a little puzzled, should she be irritated or pleased at the compliment. Most people don't really know how to react to a compliment delivered in an uninterested tone. I use her pause to increase our distance a bit and get back to experimenting.

"Hold up, yo!" Jenny grabs my arm from behind.

Huh, well this isn't going as planned.

"If you think I'm attractive, then why you ignoring me!"

"I don't know what your talking about, how have I been ignoring you. Last I checked, I just finished helping you rescue a bunch of people I didn't know."

I thought that line might stump her for a bit, but nope, it seems she's way more willing to confront things head on than I gave her credit for. To be fair, I usually have a more time to get to know people before I attempt to mess with their heads.

"You know what I mean, I been giving you hints I like you forever." She's a lot less flirty and much more angry than a second ago. I'm beginning to remember she held an arrow on me when we first met. Best not to forget something like that.

"I don't respond well to hints. Besides, the last thing I need or want is a girlfriend during the apocalypse. Even if it's you."

I'm not so heartless that I don't feel like shit giving her mixed messages, but nothing I've said so far is a lie.

"Even if it's me? So you do like me then." Jenny says grabbing my arm and hugging it to her, all her anger seemingly forgotten.

"I never said I didn't, but what does that have to do with anything?" I respond to her, firmly removing my arm from her embrace.

That one had her puzzled for a moment, but to be fair, even I didn't fully know what I was saying at this point.

"So... you like me, but you don't want me for a girlfriend?"

"I like tough, capable, pretty women and I don't want any of you for a girlfriend."

"Any of who? How many women like that you know?"

"Admittedly just you, but my point still stands."

"And may I ask why?" She asks with a tone that tells me I am thoroughly camped on her last nerve.

It's funny but since rescuing her sister, she speaks a lot less street than before. It's too bad I wont hear her voice anymore after she kills me.

"How many times have we almost died?" I ask her. "How many more times are we almost going to die before our luck runs out?"

Without looking, I point towards the far off city center, where smoke still rises from old and new sources.

"The short version is this. I don't want to have to worry about a girlfriend, I have enough worries already and so do you. We keep doing these dangerous missions and make no mistake, one day we all aren't going to come back. I'm not sure if you really understand that. I'm not sure if any of you really understand that."

She's quiet for a moment, and I think... but nope.

"So you think cutting yourself off from other people is going to keep you from getting hurt. Just because you might lose them?"

I refrain from rolling my eyes. I do like her, but I'm just not used to having to explain myself to people.

"First, yes. I do think cutting other people off emotionally prevents pain. The real question is whether or not that is a lifestyle worth living. I don't think it is, so lucky for me, that's not what I'm doing. I have you, Mr G, and the rug rat, not to mention Debrah and Ricky. You can't fight life or death battles with someone and not care for them."

I'm not sure if I'm making sense to her, I'm not even sure I'm making sense to me. But right or wrong this is how I feel.

"Don't think too much about it." I tell her. "I'm actually a lot more emotionally invested in people now than I was a few weeks ago. I just don't want to be overwhelmed with responsibilities of a romantic relationship yet."

Not when I have an apocalypse to survive.

"Yet." Jenny says.

I turn to her and raise a brow.

"You said yet." she smiles.

shit.

...

An hour later I'm back to learning more about my magic and thoroughly ignoring Jenny and everyone else for that matter. Their stupid smiles have found my last nerve, appraised the property value and built a condo on it.

The irritation makes it difficult but I slowly get back into my work. Here is something interesting.

Water Shot 10 Mana Magic Attack 2-5dmg Soaked Moist

While essentially the same as [Fire Shot], [Water Shot] does pitiful damage, but I already know what I will use the addition soak attribute it has for. Not only that but with [Mana Manipulation] I can see an easier route to building new spells now.

It's too bad my first attempt damn near loses me my arm.

Frostbite -57HP, Limb agility -30%, Limb Dexterity -50%

I totally deserved that. I repress a grimace as I go ask Mr G for his [Recovery] and [Heal].

"Backlash." I tell him when he asks how I manage to give myself frostbite.

He smiles in a way that makes me think he's wondering backlash against what. But I go back to ignoring them all.

I see what I did wrong. Used [Mana Manipulation] to try and handle some [Ice Mana] directly. I'm lucky to still have my fingers. This time I mentally will the raw mana into an empty sphere, just like [Fire Shot], but instead of sucking in fire mana, I draw Ice mana instead. This time it doesn't take half an hour before I gain a new spell. A minor application of [Force Mana] causes the spell to fire and then...

Spell Acquired Ice Shot Ice Shot 10 Mana Magic Attack 4-10dmg Chill This snowball stands a chance

I am elated. With this simple technique more or less mastered I run all the elements I am able through the raw mana sphere and force fire the spell. I am not disappointed.

Wind Shot 10 Mana Magic Attack 1-2dmg Knock Back When I grow up, I wanna be a Tornado Rock Shot 10 Mana Magic Attack 7-16dmg Fracture Where's a Glass house when you need one. Spark Shot 10 Mana Magic Attack 3-8dmg Stun Keep out of water

There may not be much difference between these elemental shot spells, but they provide versatility. I can appreciate having the correct tool for the job. Putting [Force Mana] into the sphere does nothing or if it supposed to, I'm not yet sure what. The golden mana I've finally identified as [Time Mana]. Harder to handle but worth the effort. Dark mana also proves useful. I was hoping for a healing spell with Light mana, but I wasn't too disappointed.

Slow Target 40 MP Magic Assist 10% slow 5 seconds Slow and steady Blind Target 30 MP Magic Assist --- 3 seconds Now you see me... Mark Target 30 MP Magic Assist --- 10 minutes Nowhere to Hide

I was beyond excited. There were still the sub-elements to try as well, not to mention all the sub-elements I haven't discovered yet. I know this [Shot] spell was weak in many ways, but it was easy to master and it was giving me all sorts of ideas about what to try next. Plus discovering all these spells was worth a nice chunk of EXP to my class. All in all I would say a good day just got better.

That was my first clue something was going to give. The second was Jenny yelling we had company coming. The third was argent's yowl a moment later as he dove out of the sky towards Jenny, some sort of small monster on his tail. Jenny had her bow out with an Arrow aimed, but couldn't fire for fear of hitting her pet.

The monster was a little bigger than Argent, some sort of bird/ lizard mix with with four legs, claws and attitude. Jenny finally lets loose the arrow. It pulses with energy when it gets close to Argent and the monster, knocking them both out of the sky. Stun Arrow? Didn't know she could do that without a direct hit.

Zoe's [Leap] saves argent before he hits the ground, while the monster manages to right itself and fly off before anyone thinks to shoot it down.

I think the trouble is over, but Jenny calls us together to explain.

Seems that wasn't a monster, according to her and Argent's [Shared Sight], it was someone's pet. And they were heading right for us.

Oh, and they weren't alone.