A neon blue bolt of mana impacted the dull gray concrete wall, chipping it slightly. “That’s for leaving us on the island, stupid guard.” Jess huffed.

She stuck out her hand and once again aimed at the wall. A red stick figure had been drawn onto the wall, vaguely in the shape of a human. It was supposed to be target practice, but it had ended up being more of a way for her to work off her anger. Even still, it had been an effective way to improve. Two mana bolts smashed into the drawing’s head at the same time. “Your turn.”

“I’m going to hit it in the right arm this time.” He took a deep breath and focused. His aim was notoriously bad, but he was hoping to fix that. Using Jess’s advice, he closed his eyes and visualized the mana bolt flying through the air. Something popped into place and a mental connection – similar to the one he felt when using Explosive mark – formed. He opened his eyes and activated the skill. The ball cut through the air and hit the target in the chest – six inches to the left of where he was aiming.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt has reached level 6. 1 Skill Point Awarded.

Aaron smiled, he may have missed his target, but he had gained a skill level. They had been increasingly hard to gain the higher he leveled the skill. It wasn’t egregiously hard to level yet, but he felt that getting the skill to level 100 would be a real pain in the ass.

He spent the rest of his mana pool blasting the wall, earning another level in the process. He smiled; leveling up was fun. It scratched an itch deep within his monkey brain. He entered the storage area and leaned against a wooden box. A few lay smashed on the ground, but for the most part, the frequent earthquakes hadn’t done much damage.

Right on cue, the ground shook, causing the tall stacks of crates to wobble precariously. As suddenly as it started, the earthquake stopped.

“Well, I’m out of mana. I’m bored,” Jess said as she plopped down next to him.

“There’s no such thing as boredom, only boring people,” Tony said as he practiced swinging a frying pan.

“Shut up.”

Aaron rolled his eyes; both of them had the emotional maturity of a six-year-old. He did his best to ignore their bickering; he would go insane if he was forced to listen to it for too long. With nothing else to do, he opened up Mana Bolt’s skill description.

Mana Bolt Lvl 7 (Common - Tier 1) Skill Paths: 4 Fires a ball of mana in a straight line out of your hand. Costs 5 mana. Damage based on skill level and stats.

He had noticed the addition of skill paths to the skill’s description a while ago, but he hadn’t had the chance to investigate yet. Running away from monsters and blowing up the cafeteria had required his full attention. Now, he had plenty of time to check it out. He clicked the skill paths button with his finger and a new screen popped up.

Skill Paths: 4 Barrage 1 (0/5): Two is better than one. For an increased mana cost, send out multiple mana bolts at once. Minor Metamagic 1 (0/10): Even the biggest of changes start small. Allows the user to change the color, brightness and make other minor alterations to Mana Bolt for a slight mana cost. Pathless 1 (0/15): Stray from the provided path. Allows for the manual aiming of attacks. Mana bolt is no longer limited to a straight line. However, this newfound flexibility comes at a cost. Selecting this path causes a minor decrease in accuracy. Mana Bolt 1 (0/15): The first step down the path of magic. Improves all aspects of mana bolt and opens more upgrade options.

Aaron blinked; he never would have guessed that he had looked over a part of the system as large as this. It had been a mistake to not open this tab earlier. These upgrades would have been useful while fighting the goblins in the cafeteria. Not that he would have been able to afford any of them, but he still felt pained that he had ignored them.

He only had 8 skill points, so the Barrage 1 path would be the only one he could complete in one go. Even though it was the only path he could complete, he didn’t want to take it. Sending out more than one mana bolt at once only seemed only marginally useful. Especially, when he could already fire them rapidly with little delay in between shots. At later levels, it could be useful. Sending out 100 mana bolts at a time seemed like a good crowd control method, but by the time he reached that level of power, he figured there would be better options available.

Additionally, he didn’t feel the need to upgrade mana bolts burst damage. Explosive Mark would always be superior in that department. Mana Bolt’s main use was to keep enemies at a distance while he set up Explosive Marks, or to interrupt their rhythm.

The next path on the list looked more useful, but he wouldn’t be able to complete it in one go. However, its upsides were high. Currently, Mana Bolt was a neon blue ball of mana that was impossible to miss. If he could somehow lower the attack's brightness and match its color to the environment, its utility would increase. He smiled at the thought of launching invisible mana bolts. Alternatively, he could raise the attack's brightness to the point where the enemy would be blinded. The path's usefulness was entirely based on how much it would allow him to affect the skill. His hopes weren’t high – it had the word minor in its name.

He immediately disregarded the next path. His aim was bad enough already; he didn’t need anything else artificially making it worse. Though, if his aim ever improved, it could be a useful path. Curving mana bolts sounded overpowered.

Lastly, the most expensive path: Mana Bolt 1. A general upgrade with no downsides. He’d definitely take this path in the future, but its description alluded to the fact that the main reason to take this path would be to unlock new, stronger paths. It didn’t sound like something that would be immediately useful. Once he had more skill points under his belt, he’d get this path.

Aaron twisted his hair as he went back and forth on what path to select. He wasn’t a naturally indecisive person, but decisions became a lot harder to make when the consequences of picking wrong were death. He took a deep breath then dumped all his skill points into the Minor Metamagic path. He was rewarded with a point in his magic stat for every skill point he invested.

He shrugged his shoulders as he stood up; in the end, what had changed his mind was the last part of the Path’s description. The possibility of making other minor alterations sounded promising. With a little luck, he would be able to change Mana Bolt’s shape into something more lethal – like a spike or a bullet. Even if his plans didn’t pan out, the sheer number of stats the path awarded made it worthwhile to take.

Absently, he looked down at the holes torn into his orange jumpsuit. The wounds underneath had already healed; whether that was because of leveling or an increased natural regeneration rate he was unsure.

“All you do is lay down all day and read; you’re the boring one, not me,” Jess said passionately. Somehow, they were still arguing; Aaron felt his sanity slip away a little bit. He tried to ignore them once again but failed. Something in his brain wouldn’t let him tune out for any longer.

“That is where you are wrong. Reading is not boring. Of course, a boring person such as yourself wouldn’t find it very interesting.” Jess pulled out a knife.

Aaron interrupted them before they got in a fight over the stupid topic. “I think Jess has a point; we shouldn’t be sitting around here wasting time.” He opened the [Initialization] screen.

Phase 1:

-User Interface Initialized 100% | Think [Status] to continue to the Status Screen. 0:00:00

-Creating Class System 100% | Time Remaining: 0:00:00

-Raising Ambient Mana Levels 19% | Time Remaining: 25:33:24

-Preparing Initial Mob Spawns 100% | Time Remaining: 0:00:00

-Merging Worlds In High Mana Zones 34% | Time Remaining: 12:41:40

“We have around 24 hours before phase 1 of the system integration ends. I’d be willing to bet that the situation is going to get a whole lot worse once the world-merge finishes.”

According to the screen, the “minor” weather fluctuations should end in a day, which he was thankful for. The constant earthquakes were driving him insane. However, he was aware that even if the weather problem resolved itself, phase 2 of the system integration would likely be worse.

Tony waved his frying pan around. “So, you’re saying we should go out and fight the demons?”

“Precisely. We should hunt monsters now while they are still relatively weak, so we can level up. Since we’re stuck on the island now.” He frowned. “We will eventually have to fight that big demon with the sword.”

“I like that plan. Though, I don’t think it will be possible for us to hit level 18 in one day.” Jess said.

“We don’t need to be that strong. We just need to be strong enough to run away.”

“Ok, let’s do it. I have always wanted to fight a demon,” Tony said. The group grabbed their things then made their way down the tunnel. They passed the strange carvings on the wall and the broken corpses of the goblins without any issues.

Outside it was still pouring rain. The water fell in thick walls, limiting visibility to only about a football field's length. In addition, howling gusts of wind tore through the island.

Jess shivered and rubbed her arm as she stepped out into the rain. “I should have taken Mana Barrier; I could’ve used it as an umbrella.”

“That’s actually kind of smart,” Aaron said as he held a hand up over his head to block some of the rain. After a moment, he gave up; it wasn’t worth the effort. No matter what he did, he would be soaked to the bone by the end of this.

“Of course, it is; I’m smart.” They walked around the outside of the prison, searching for monsters. However, they didn’t find very many. The guards had cleared out all the monsters in the immediate vicinity. The monsters that they did find were weak.

Working as a team, they had an easy time eliminating the isolated level 1 and 2 goblins they found. Killing the monsters didn’t benefit Aaron much, but it did allow the others to catch up to him in levels somewhat.

Suddenly, a massive earthquake - larger than all the others combined ripped through the landscape, knocking Aaron off his feet. The prison shook so violently that he could actually see it sway side to side. Even the ocean seemed to shake; large waves crashed upon the shore. With a massive crash, a portion of the outer wall caved into itself, creating an opening to the prison. All around the island portions of the prison collapsed. Without any warning, the shaking stopped.

“Anyone else want to get out of the rain?” Jess said as she poked her head through the opening.

Aaron glanced down at his soaked clothing. “Why not.” As a group, they entered the prison’s dark halls in search of stronger monsters to farm.