It had been about twenty hours and twenty waves since Leo had killed the first troll and something wasn’t sitting right with Leo. The experience and System points he received for each wave felt off in terms of their difficulty. For a while he thought that it could have been sleep problems that made him see issues where there weren’t any, but he had gotten two five hour rest periods.

This caused a seed of discomfort to grow within him because the only reasonable explanations for it were; the world he would return to was extremely dangerous and the Tutorial was boosting the rewards to give humans a greater chance at survival or the System had miscalculated the combat power of the weapons humans had developed and gave us what would be extremely difficult waves if we didn’t have them.

There were other possible but less likely reasons like the point scale was very large, but that wouldn’t explain the sharp increase in points per creature killed.

Only 5 waves to get from 50 per goblin to 9,000 for a troll. In the end he concluded that whatever the answer was it didn’t change his end goal of clearing as many waves as possible.

Not to mention the spell rewards he received. After he received Flamethrower as a reward two new spells had been added. The first was a simple burst of kinetic energy that traveled outwards from his hands. It wasn’t a lethal amount of force, but it was enough to move most creatures quite significantly. The second was a spell called Force Field. The System must have been listening to Leo complain because it had given him a defensive spell. It produced and maintained a field around him that absorbed or blocked kinetic energy and projectiles. Leo had no idea what the quality of these spells were, but he was just happy to not feel so exposed.

Leo collapsed onto his back with a deep sigh. Leo was beginning to wonder if he had just prepared too well or if the Tutorial was broken after four waves. He had completed twenty waves since defeating the troll and the monsters had just been flat out devolving in threat level.

First it was hobgoblins which turned out to be glorified goblins, but somehow earned him 900 xp a head. Next were the bears, just slightly larger than what could be found on Earth and then there were drakes. He was initially scared of their looks and supposed link to dragons in the stories he read; he was readily let down as their scales melted under heavy gunfire.

The waves had continued like this until the most recent one where he fought something that couldn’t be damaged by bullets, shadow terrors. Apparently they were some manifestation of Mana attuned to the shadows that could only be damaged by use of Mana. They lost quickly under the intense flames of his Flamethrower spell.

The only thing keeping Leo interested in clearing waves was the prospect of learning everything he could about Mana. His difficulty in infusing metal with Mana in his initial trial really rubbed him the wrong way as that was all he worked on the last twenty waves.

It turned out that he couldn’t just imagine the effect he wanted his Mana to produce on the gun and release it. He had to slowly infuse the matter with his mana and then control it that way.

The only thought that came to his mind when he considered what it would take to hand craft things by Mana was, expensive. It had taken 90% of his maximum mana to just mend all the pieces together on the outside.

He still had to work out the minor imperfections left and work on some of the smaller damaged pieces, but he didn’t want to think about how long that would take as his control at that fine grain of a level wasn’t getting him anywhere.

Leo had decided to take a real break for this rest period which was just over two hours. After he ate and drank he laid down for a nap. He was happily dreaming about all the magic he would be able to do one day, now that he had Mana, when he was abruptly shaken from his sleep by wet and grimy hands.

“Hey! Hey! Come on asshole! You have to get up! The Elves are almost here. You have to wake up.” a panicked but steady voice shouted into his ear.

After rubbing the sleep out of his eyes Leo found himself lying behind a group of humans. Leo didn’t realize the kind of danger he was in until his brain registered the deafening stream of bullets coming out of the humans’ weapons. Unfortunately, the bullets seemed to do nothing but create a light show as each impact against some invisible energy shield created bright colorful sparks.

Each of the Elves had long smooth dark silver hair that flowed to their lower backs. All pairs of eyes were a black center surrounded by pulsing red. They wore sadistic smiles on their faces as they slowly marched towards the humans. They walked in comfort behind what appeared to be an impenetrable barrier that enveloped their whole group.

Then he looked to the source of the voice that woke him and found a rather hardy looking female who was still yelling at him to get up.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m up. Where’s my .50 cal?” he shouted back at her, annoyed that she was still yelling as if he hadn’t woken up.

“I don’t know. We haven’t had a chance to look around yet. We were just teleported here and told that only one group could survive, us versus the Elves.” she explained, glancing at the situation that was slowly growing dire. The Elves were now 100 feet away when they started drawing their weapons, some had swords others had bows and there were a few who conjured a spell to their hands.

To confirm what she had told him Leo pulled up the notification.

This is the Final Wave. Your opponents are the other teams participating in the Tutorial. Elimination of all enemies is required to defeat the wave.

Groups remaining: 3/3

‘As I thought, the other humans are considered my enemies. Best that I make the most use of them.’

Saddened by the fact he would have to kill humans this early, Leo reminded himself why he would survive at all costs. No matter the cost. ‘This is what I was created for.’ One last deep breath was all he needed to resolve himself to his future actions.

Leo started looking around for his machine gun and found it just a few feet behind him in the opposite direction of the action. He went over and picked it up before setting it down between some of the humans. Leo took a firing position and prepared to join the fray.

As soon as he pressed the trigger the Elves’ march stopped, their barrier looked like it was finally taking real damage from the more powerful weapon. A look of irritation took over the leader’s face and he motioned to some of his warriors. Three sword wielders broke off from the pack with their own smaller barriers. Leo noticed this and told the woman who woke him to take over for him.

“Hey! What are you doing? Are you leaving us?” she yelled in anger at him.

‘Idiot’ was all he could think of the woman as although he was walking away from the battle, it wasn’t to leave. He grabbed his sword from his pile of gear and placed the remaining grenades and explosives in their appropriate slots around his body before drawing his sword.

The Elves who had broken off had started cutting down the humans by the time he turned around. He sprinted head first into one of the Elves and tackled him to the ground then as quickly as they landed he got back up and made space between him and the Elf he tackled.

The Elf had a confused look on his face as he stared down Leo as he got back on his feet. Leo only smiled and turned his back as he waved a finger that held a loose ring on it. This only pushed the Elf into anger before he burst into flames falling to the ground.

By the time the other attacker noticed his comrade had fallen Leo had repeated the same tactic as before. Soon after all Leo had to worry about were the remaining humans and the final three Elves.

Unfortunately, the other humans were out of ammo and had nothing left to offer the fight.

“Can any of you do anything without guns?” Leo asked, hoping to gain at least one other person for the upcoming fight.

All of them nodded no and he handed out a grenade to each of them.

“Don’t spend it all in one place now, you hear me?” he said with a chuckle, mocking the good ole’ quote.

The lead Elf had stopped 20 feet from the humans before speaking, “I wish to offer my condolences to you, brave humans. I initially planned on ending each and every one of you swiftly and painlessly because of how pitiful your attempts at retaliation, but because you have taken two of my own I must offer you an enemy’s death, slow and painful.” that sadistic smile returned to his face as he took his fighting stance.

“Oh yeah, well same to you. Except I’ll keep you around to ask you some questions.” Leo responded trying to match the Elf’s level of grandiose, but falling considerably short.

“Then let our dance begin.”

The Elf lunged with his sword aiming to take Leo’s head clean off only to hit fresh air as Leo ducked, dropping his sword and tackling the Elf to the ground.

“Do not think you can get me with the same trick, human! I have warded myself against fire already. Pathetic.” he said with disgust on his face.

“Oh don’t worry there won’t be much fire this time, just a big boom. I really hope you survive this. But then again maybe your companions back there can answer my questions.” Leo finished taunting the haughty Elf before detonating each of his explosives, the force launching him into the air.

Leo came crashing down into his pile of gear, thankfully still protected by his force field, and just laid there exhausted. ‘Ahhh, they fall for it every time.’

Leo assumed he had to finish off the remaining Elves and got up only to see the remaining humans cut open dying on the ground. His assumption was proven correct as the two girls marched towards him.

“Well shit. At least I don’t have to kill the other humans myself.”

“Hey, ladies. Now I know I probably just killed your dad or your hubby or whatever you got going on back in your world, but let me make the same offer to you he made to me, sort of.” Leo said with a grin really hoping their guard would drop.

“Nice try you pathetic pig. We’re going to enjoy peeling the skin from your face as we make you suffer.” they responded in unison.

The pair of women continued to approach him cautiously, weapons drawn. When they were five feet away he lifted both of his palms towards them and smiled.

“Freeze.” Large swaths of flame shot forth from each of his hands that put napalm to shame. Screams that made him flinch almost broke his concentration enough to stop his spells but he knew he had to keep going until the only sound he heard was the popping of burnt flesh.

Shortly after the ear piercing screams ended he cut the flow of mana to his hands, now fully spent, and took a look at his handy work. Both girls were now charred husks of their former selves and probably just a few more seconds from being complete ash.

“It was a damn shame I couldn’t ask you questions, but I’ll find my answers eventually as long as I’m still alive.” Leo commented to himself with a jolly skip.

Leo walked over to where the last 5 humans were cut down to check who was still alive since he hadn’t heard a ding.

“Tootaloo, anyone home.”

“Ugh, o-over h-here.” he heard a soft squeak from the woman who had woken him up earlier.

“Damn, what sweet irony is this, right? You’re the one to wake me up thinking we were on the same team and now here we are, me having to kill you. Sorry you had to suffer for so long.” Leo spoke solemnly, mostly for himself before stabbing his sword through her head bringing the ding-a-ling.

Final Wave complete.

6 enemies killed

Rewards: 1,319,000xp 5x Elves of the Blood Moon Unto Un’Ver’A’Sherraii, 500,000 System Points.

Would You like to proceed to the Shop?

1:15:00 Remaining

Yes/No

It only took him 30 minutes to gather all the gear he could still find intact and decided to wait until he got out of here to check it.

Leo tapped ‘Yes’ on his interface and in the next moment he found himself staring at what one would imagine a fantasy world tavern to look like. The only oddity was that it was completely empty and quiet except for the sound of cloth rubbing against a glass mug.

Standing behind a counter with a rag in one hand and a mug in the other was a gruff looking dwarf. His face was missing an eye and his hand had some trouble holding the mug due to some missing fingers.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen a solo party here. Were you the miracle survivor or did you get here by yerself? Oh, and take a seat I’ll get ‘ya a drink.”

Leo took a seat and watched the Dwarf float over to his table with two drinks in hand. The Dwarf plopped down into a seat of his own before sliding the mug over to Leo.

“Drink up. You won’t be able to get stuff this good for a long time, if you ever make it that far. But if what you say is true I imagine you’ll get there just fine.” the Dwarf said.

Leo took a sip and was shocked at how smoothly it went down and how warm it made his whole being feel.

“My god what is that stuff? I need more.”

“That’ll be Dwarfhen Heartehn’s secret brew. It’s packed full of the purest Mana you could ever find. And maybe later, I only have enough to give one to each party who makes it here.” the Dwarf replied laughing in pride at his drink.

“What’s your name? It sort of gets old thinking of you as ‘The Dwarf’.”

“Me name be Kylyhagaard. And what’s yours me boi.”

“That would be Leo. You’ve said it twice now, people who make it ‘here’, do you mean complete the Tutorial or something else.”

“Not complete the Tutorial, complete the Waves. It happens every ten to twenty integrations. Ever since the Tutorial was put in place it’s been a good signal that your new world is more likely to survive the Incursions.”

Perking up at the mention of something new but important Leo probed deeper, “Incursions? You mean like demons coming from another dimension to consume all life?” Leo threw out a guess sarcastically, making himself laugh.

“Oh pretty close, not demons though. Just the Eldritch energy. It seeps into our universe and starts consuming Mana until it has consumed every bit of Mana in one universe before moving on to the next.” Kylyhagaard corrected with deep sadness in his voice.

Leo stopped laughing when his brain registered what Kylyhagaard said, “Ah, I see. So how does someone defeating the Waves make a planet more likely to survive Incursions?”

“Well, because of the power you gain from the System Shop you usually end up becoming the undisputed ruler of the planet if you’re not stupid, and you have to be not stupid to beat the Waves. And usually once a ruler with that much power takes over everything moves relatively smoothly in the proper direction to defend against Incursions.”

“And what exactly are these Incursions? Do portals from beyond open up and spit out monsters from our nightmare’s nightmares?”

“Hmm, not exactly but close. Eldritch seeps into our universe and manifests in many ways; dungeons, dungeon worlds, Eldritch Bosses, and run of the mill monsters like you saw during the Waves.”

“I see. I can guess what the bosses and dungeons are, but how exactly do the dungeon worlds work?”

“Dungeon worlds are the product of the right concentration of Eldritch seeping into our universe at the right location. This causes the System to attach a pocket dimension, that turns the energy into resources, to the closest world connected to the System.

I’d like to see the High Council try and take the planet from you if your new planet gets a dungeon world.”

“Why would a dungeon world create that big of a difference?”

“Are you kidding me? You get a whole other world that rewards you more for doing the same on the surface world in a more compact space. On top of that if you are very lucky some dungeon worlds have been found to have ancient ruins of civilizations past that hold treasures lost to time.”

Leo took a moment to absorb everything he said and things were starting to align within his head.

“What is this High Council that you spoke of?” Leo blurted out, realizing he almost forgot to ask about what would probably reveal itself to be the most important thing.

“The High Council is the most powerful organization in the Universe. They are made up of some 50 or so nations that hold control of about 43% of all System territory. They typically claim, in some form or another, about half of the new worlds inducted to the System. They also maintain a brutal unified military to defend and expand their territory where they see fit.”

“How bad is it, coming under their control?”

“That really depends on which nation your world is handed over to as its maintainer. Some are good, others not so much but there is a minimum quality of life guaranteed by the council laws. It’s just, if your natural way of life doesn’t agree with your maintainer’s rules there is nothing you can do to free yourself other than appeal to another nation who better suits your values or rebel against the council as a whole.”

Leo was stunned at how much information he had been getting. Eager to milk all of the information he could, he was about to ask more questions of how the High Council worked when Leo noticed Kylyhagaard tapping his wrist like he had a watch on. ‘Shit. Time is running out. Focus. Only the most essential questions.’

“So how long do we have before the High Council starts trying to take over our world?”

A puzzled look found its way to the Kylyhagaard’s face, “It’s hard to say. I’ve heard timelines anywhere from a century to around half a decade. It seems to be pretty random in relation to where your new world ends up spatially. Don’t forget though, the High Council isn’t the only one who could come knocking on your door looking for a fresh rock of resources.”

“So am I supposed to do something with you or are you just the bonus Tutorial Helper in case I had any more questions?”

“Oh, sorry. I’m also where you can access the shop and be of assistance there.” he spoke before making a swift gesture that resulted in a list of items he could purchase with System Points.

“So Kylyhagaard, can you recommend anything for me as a must buy?”

“Not really given I don’t know your style of fighting or what you want to do once you get to your world.”

“Alright, well what’s the limit to what you can do with Mana? I was testing it pretty thoroughly and it seems that the only limit to what you can do is imagination, control and the amount of mana you have. Is there some sort of hard limit or underlying rules to what it can do?”

“Not to me knowledge. As most everyone understands it, it is the energy with which everything is as it is. The only two things that stand beyond it are the System and the Eldritch.”

“So I could imagine something completely impossible and it would happen?”

“Mmmm, theoretically I guess but depending on what it was it would take a nearly impossible amount of mana to accomplish.”

“What about methods of generating more mana? Do stars give it off naturally or something or is there always the same amount as there always was.”

“Mmm I don’t know the answer to that one. I’m sorry, I was never one to explore the inner workings of the stuff.”

‘Looks like I’ll have to do more research, but I’m pretty sure I know how to make butloads of mana.’

“Thanks. I’ll go ahead and take a look at that shop now.”

Kylyhagaard happily tapped the air in front of him and Leo was staring at a screen displaying a list of things he could buy with his System Points.

He had settled on being a hardcore Mana user and was searching for an ability that was akin to a character’s signature style from a popular MOBA game back on Earth.

It only took him a few minutes of careful searching to find the two things he wanted most from the shop.

Soul Split | 500,000 Mana Lake | 300,000

“Alright, I’ve purchased everything I wanted. Oh, one last question. How do I select a class? The Tutorial never mentioned that one.”

“You’ll have the option to unlock a class at Race level 10.”

“Thanks Kylyhagaard, I guess I’ll see ya out there if I ever go through another Tutorial.” Leo remarked. Just as Leo was about to hit the button on his interface to continue an oddity he had realized surfaced to the forefront of his mind.

“Hey Kylyhagaard, would you say it’s normal for people to have access to Mana before the System induces them?”

Leo’s question hit Kylyhagaard in the face like a wrecking ball and he was in the motion of answering ‘no’ when Leo was whisked away by the System.

After Leo had disappeared Kylyhagaard let out a long sigh. “Oh dear System what have you done this time? I don't even know what this will mean for our future.”

Advertisement A note from ImMrMeeseeks

Let me know what you think down below in the comments!

And if you are a returning reader how excited or sad or mad you are about my hiatus and return.

Also if you enjoyed this first chapter there will hopefully be one dropping tomorrow, maybe two, depending on how much editing work I have. So hit that FOLLOW, FAVORITE AND READ LATER button so you don't miss the fresh out of the oven words arriving tomorrow.

Support "Progenitor of Mana" PayPal Patreon Previous

Chapter Fiction

Index Next

Chapter RSS About the author 4 Fictions 1 Posts 1 Threads ImMrMeeseeks Follow Author Wednesday, January 12, 2022 10:48:39 PM

Bio:

Achievements Comments(8) Set Compact Log in to comment

Log In Load Comments Please enable JavaScript to load the comments! Log in to comment

Log In Settings Theme (Entire Website) Dark Light Dim background 0% 20% 40% 50% 60% 80% 100% Font Size 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 22 24 28 32 Reader Width Max 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% Font Family Default ————— Open Dyslexic Atkinson Hyperlegible ————— Arial Roboto Open Sans OS Default Comic Sans Lucida Verdana Ubuntu Ubuntu Condensed Franklin Gothic Garamond Caslon Minion Font Color Indent Color Scheme Theme Default OLED Black Royal Road Dark Dark Gray Gray Light Gray Sepia White Paragraph Spacing Close × Give Reputation to User: Points You can specify how many points you want to give (minimum: 0, maximum: 0). Comment (optional) Why are you giving this user reputation? Give Reputation Close About

Royal Road® is the home of web novels and fan fictions! In our amazing community, you can find various talented individuals who write as a hobby or even professionally, artists who create art for them, and many, many readers who provide valuable feedback and encouragement.

Amazon Affiliate Royal Road® is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Theme Select Dark Light

Follow Us On Need some help? Create a support ticket

Contact Contact Us by Email

Advertising Ads for Authors

Programmatic Advertising Royal Road® © 2013-2022 Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Blog | Status Tap again to scroll to the top!