Myke was floating in the darkness. The only thing beside him here was Akira.

There was no need to talk.

It wasn’t possible anymore to say where Myke ended and Akira started.

They were fully merged into one cybernetic organism.

Myke looked into the void and immediately information appeared.

This was the comprehensive data recorded during the firebolt tests combined with all the information about the magic they had gathered until now.

Myke started the analysis.

First, the chanting commands and the reference calls to the Soul Network when executed. The magic behind them and the construction of the mana circuit of the magic circle.

Next was the magic infusion in the circuit and the flow of the mana when activating the spell.

The last step was the collapse of the magic circle and the acceleration of the firebolt.

Slowly Myke started to understand how the magic works.

He was amazed. The magic was the king of the five forces. The one to rule them all. As if the other four forces existed only to be controlled by it.

Magic could freely manipulate them and with enough mana, it was even possible to convert it into the other forces creating matter and energy.

Myke finally understood how Akira works.

To create a real physical object with magic requires lots of mana. The Einstein equation was valid for magic also but creating virtual matter with the same properties as the real matter was easy.

The only drawback of the virtual matter is the need for constant mana supply. Without mana, the virtual matter disappears right away.

Akira was made of low energy virtual matter and energy. In the mana rich body of Myke, there was no problem with the continuous mana supply.

Akira didn’t need physical appearance and the low energy virtual matter was easy to change and evolve.

Myke slowly grasped the complications of this information.

The ancient language and the firebolt spell felt now as if they came from the stone age.

The firebolt spell worked like a classic light bulb. Forcing energy through it to get the desired effect with an efficiency below 2%.

The whole language felt for him like it tried using a stone hammer to solve all the problems.

Myke didn’t need this primitive language anymore. He was a computer scientist with a Ph.D. in physics.

Now he could create his own language which will make use of all the knowledge he has.

He wasn’t a simple user anymore.

Now he was The Engineer!

Myke woke with a smile on his face.

“Good morning sleepy head.” He heard the cheerful voice of Liana.

She was seating and leaning on the wall while eating from one of the cans.

“Oh, so you found a spoon?”

“Sure, I have.” She pointed to an unopened can with a new spoon she had prepared for him.

Myke took the can gladly, he was starving. “Thank you!"

"You're welcome"

"What happened? Weren’t the zombies coming?”

“The few bastards were no match for a C ranked adventurer like me.” She smiled.

“Here, take this.” She handed him a knife.

Myke shook his head. “I don’t need it.”

He looked at his index finger and executed a magic command to create a virtual iron atom and a virtual carbon atom. Then he executed another command to copy these atoms and create the perfect atomic grid for steel in the form of a small blade. In the same way, he created a piezoelectric element attached to it.

Instead of a battery he just started a subroutine which creates virtual electrons to achieve the needed voltage.

With Akira’s computational power at his disposal, the whole process took about ten second and the two-centimeter blade started buzzing.

It looked like a steel claw on the tip of Myke’s index finger.

He touched with it the can and cut the top as if cutting butter with a hot knife.

Once created he saved the blade creation as a function he could use again. All he has to do next time is to execute this function to create the buzzing blade instantly.

Myke had now hundred-fifty MP and this magic didn’t cost even one MP.

“Well, I just invented micro magic.” He muttered with a smile.

“Wow, what the hell is this?” Liana exclaimed in astonishment.

“I can now create my own magic.” He smiled proudly at her.

“This is amazing! There are very few who succeeded in creating new magic.”

Myke wasn’t surprised. Without deeper knowledge about the forces of nature, it was very hard to control them even with magic.

He took the spoon and started eating.

“Liana let’s leave the city. I don’t want to see any more zombies.”

“You don't say. But you were pretty effective yesterday. I never thought I will survive an encounter with a damn zogre.”

“This thing scared the hell out of me. Are there other monsters in the city I should be aware of?”

“Don’t worry, it is very unlikely to meet something so damn powerful here again.”

After they finished eating, they got out of the building. Myke boosted the detection skill as much as possible. After some micro magic tuning, he was able to detect low mana radiation a couple of hundred meters away.

Myke pointed at the main street with the hardware store. “We can just walk down this street until we leave the city. We can resupply in the stores along the way.”

Liana nodded.

A couple of kilometers before the city exit, they found a big store still in good shape.

“Here is a perfect place to look for supplies.” Myke pointed at the store.

Liana went inside first, and Myke followed her.

“This was a shopping center. The grocery store is in the basement.”

“Got it.”

As she reached the grocery store at the bottom, she made a gesture to him to be quiet and pointed in the store with her other hand.

Myke nodded and quietly came to her. He looked then where she was pointing.

Some of the shelves where on the floor broken, but behind one of the still-standing shelves were boots and fresh blood to be seen.

Someone had recently died in here.

It was quiet and Myke’s radar was empty. They were safe for now. They walked slowly to the shelf and looked behind it.

In front of them were the remains of multiple adventurers and lots of zombies. The bodies were mostly eaten by the zombies and besides the bones, the armor, and the boots, almost nothing else was left.

This had happened recently, maybe just a couple of hours ago.

“This is what happens frequently to the low ranked adventurers who come here,” Liana said with a gloomy face. “Even the high ranked adventurers can end like this if they are not cautious enough.”

“The same happened to your party?”

“Yes, we were attacked while searching in a store just like this one. A horde of damn zombies attacked us. We didn’t stand a chance. I was stronger and faster than the rest of my party and managed to escape, but I couldn’t do anything for the others.”

“I’m sorry about your friends.”

“Don’t be, they weren’t my friends and besides they knew the risks. Anyway, let’s search quickly for useful stuff and get the hell out of here.”

“Alright.”

They split to search for food.

“Hey Myke, come here!”

Myke was collecting food cans as he heard Liana calling him. He put them in the backpack and quickly got to her.

He looked at the sword in her hands.

“look what I found. Do you know how to use it?”

“Not really.”

She smiled. “I’ll teach you! Carrying it around should be a good disguise for you.”

She was right. Myke wanted to keep his powers a secret for now. It seems Liana had the same thought in mind.

“This probably belonged to one of the deceased adventurers.”

She handed the sword to him. “Now it’s yours!”

He took it and was surprised how heavy it was. Scratches were all over the blade. The sword was in heavy use.

They packed all the food cans they could find and got out of the store. Now they had enough supplies for the journey to Postgard.

Thanks to Myke’s detection skill they avoided the zombies and an hour later they finally reached the city exit sign.

Myke looked in front of him and sighed.

“This is so different than I remember.”

“Sure, your memories are thirty years old.”

“You are right I suppose. Let’s get moving!”