“So, what do you think?” asked Aaron, he never thought he would spend the day after the second wave sitting down and talking with a nerd from Mages of the coast but here he was, discussing mana.

Unfortunately he had not recovered in time for the second wave, his doctor said he would be free to act if he managed to recover all his attributes to average human levels, unfortunately his refused to budge from 4, his frustration had caused him to overwork himself nearly collapsing on the gym and getting grounded, now he couldn’t even exercise anymore, at least he had gained that point in and another one in

“I think you should stop learning so many different abilities for a while” “What do you mean” the skinny nerd looked around and grabbed my water bottle, it was the kind that you squeeze to get the water out, shaking the bottle he started to explain “this is your mana pool, when you want to use an ability you squeeze the bottle and the mana flows through the opening, which in this case is the mana path” he squeezed the bottle and squirted water over the floor “that was not intentional, anyway if you create another mana path you create another opening in the bottle so that, when you squeeze mana naturally flows from both openings.”

“First, how do I stop the mana from spilling on the other paths, second, why should I stop learning different abilities” “well you just have to block the other paths like you’re doing now, better mana control would be the way to go but, if there are too many openings and they’re all over the bottle they become too hard to block, I think that’s why we have classes, abilities learned through classes are all alike, their paths are close to one another and it gets easier to block them all with a single hand.”

“In other words, specialization is the way to go” handing back my bottle he nodded “Yeah” good to get confirmation from the big brains, Aaron thanked the man and waved him off, using a string he picked up the controller and turned on the TV, unwilling to watch any more war news he changed channels until he found an old TV series on rerun.

Having nothing better to do he decided to try and create something else with his powers concentrating once again he manifested a couple dozen strings and wove then together slowly, wrapping one string around the other in a twisting pattern, after finishing he materialized more strings and continued to twist them until he had a pretty solid 60 cm pole, he then created another smaller one of about 6 cm and put them together into a T shape, now he could start working.

Extending some strings between each of the three points of his construct he formed the frame for his new weapon, to finish it he just had to fill in the space between the pole and the strings then try and make an edge at the sides and in front of it, it proved to be harder than he though but, after nearly an hour of trying, he managed to do it.

His power would stay manifested for an hour and a half now so he still had time to experiment, looking at his construct it looked like a very triangular sword, he formed another 20 cm long pole and attached it to the end of the blade, to others it would be invisible but in his eyes it was a… well a very VERY crude sword, give him a break it was his first time doing it, grabbing the handle of his weapon with one hand he swung it at the wooden table with force

The weapon made a loud bang and he felt the minor backlash of some of his strings breaking, the construction was still fine but it’s thinnest part had completely dissolved “Fuck” it seems any string thin enough to create an edge would be too weak to cut other materials and break on impact.

His failure did not discourage him after all, even though he clearly couldn’t make a blade yet the construct seemed to work well enough as a blunt weapon, dissolving his failed sword he created another pole, this one he made two meters long and much wider, a Bo staff, using both hands he struck the table again breaking it in two without any damage to the weapon, yes blunt objects would work, laying the staff at the wall without dissolving it he proceeded to create a variety of other things like a one handed hammer, a mace, a two handed heavy hammer and even a monkey’s fist which was by far the most useful for him given the range he could swing the thing and the fact he could make it pretty solid and heavy with his power, he then started to create many monkey’s fists of different sizes to get familiar with the process each one being materialized faster than the other, when he had created about 35 of them he got a message.

Congratulations, your has increased, it is now intermediate level 2

Congratulations, you have created a new skill, would you like to name it?

YESNO

He just decided to leave it’s name the same as the weapons

MONKEY’S FIST

StatusBeginnerLevel1

DescriptionA blunt weapon created from strings it can be very devastating in the right situations

Current Bonus2/3 Blunt dmg

Happy with his new skill and the fact that his was still growing at an accelerated pace he dissolved all his creations and got up, it was time for Lily’s training.

Like before he had decided to practice outside and the little girl was already waiting there, dressed in sportswear and already sweating “Hey why would you start without me!” “Because you’re not doing anything today Aaron” came a voice from behind him, turning around he saw Eric coming closer with a bottle of water on his right hand “And what are you doing here?” “Since I was without my partner I was given an easier mission, just had to help deal with a group of rapist, murderous bastards and oversee the start of an evacuation before they sent me back, did you know humans now give about 125 XP?” “Damn that’s gonna cause trouble” “Yeah the law enforcement guys are having one hell of a hard time maintaining order.”

Squeezing Eric’s hand Aaron turned to the little girl to start training but the blonde man interrupted him “Ahem, she has already stretched and just waiting to receive instructions” “Ok then just let me stretch too and…” “No, what you are gonna do is obey your doctor’s orders and stay quiet, you can instruct her perfectly well sitting down” they stared at each other for a few seconds but in the end Aaron conceded, the big wannabe hero had actually grown on him.

Sitting down on the ground he started “Ok then, Like yesterday start with the horse position do you remember it?” “Yes!” “Ok, start with a straight punch, Lily your thumb goes over your index and middle fingers ” Lily concentrated and punched out once, twice “No, pull your elbows backwards and keep your chest open, keep your back straight” she punched out once again this time her form was better but there were still some minor mistakes, he wanted to get up and show her but knew Eric would bother him if he did instead he materialized ten strings and wrapped them around her body forcing it to move the right way.

“Eh! Wha…” “Remember runt, this is the right way to move” after that the training progressed fairly well, he repeated the three punches and two kicks and made her practice them for close to an hour them started teaching her three stances and made her practice moving between them using his strings to correct her every time there was a mistake.

From inside the facility he noted a soldier come running their way “what now?” Eric got up and waved the men over, the soldier stopped a few meters in from of them and saluted “Sir, Colonel Delacroix has requested both of your presences on the second meeting room” he got up and dusted himself “Fine we will be there shortly, Lily you can go practice shooting now we are finishing early today” messing up her hair with a miniature version of he said “If I am not back tomorrow look for Caleb Reed, you met him when I got my Jian” “Ok Aaron” she forgot to bow as he had taught her so he sent one last string and curved her back forcefully before bowing back.

Together they made their way towards the meeting room putting a hand on his shoulder Eric asked “Hey, you think they’re gonna clear you for action?” “Yeah probably, I mean I already got all my attributes back to at least five and have been without exercise for nearly a full day” “Great, I can’t wait to see your equipment” “What do you mean?” smiling widely and with a shine in his eye Eric answered “They managed to finish the TALOS 3, members of Ragnarok get a customized one when going on missions” Aaron looked at him and couldn’t help smiling as well.

While his Specter armor set had been incredibly advanced and easy to use it was only a modified version of Modern Revision Suit with Satayev glass, only issued because they hadn’t completed the TALOS 3 on time, eager to see his new gear Aaron picked up speed.

The room was empty except for two men sitting down on a wide rectangular table one of them had the traditional army uniform while the other was still in comfortable civilian clothes they both got up “Good, you’re here” They shook hands and the Colonel started to talk “First, Loki you’re cleared for action, your new armor and weapons will be waiting at the helicopter, you’re going with only Beta team this time” “Understood, what is the mission?”

“We have received a call from a survivor camp on Detroit, it seems that more than 35 thousand people managed to gather close to the interstate 75 on the Rouge River, they have no Node and managed to make themselves a very thorny target so most monsters were ignoring them before the second wave, yesterday what appears to be a, is it a sloth or a parliament?” “I don’t think it matters Colonel” “anyway at least 16 Owlbears took residence not even a kilometer from them and have already made two assaults on their fortified position the creatures have an average level of 19, there are also 3 elites and a boss confirmed among them, the survivor’s camp has no way to fend off such strong force.

Your mission will be to land on the camp, inspect it, them eliminate the Owlbears then eliminate any other threats around the location, we are also sending heavy weaponry with you to make them safer, the camp has about a hundred policemen and an ex. Marine FBI agent so they should be able to handle the weapons with some safety, Loki here”

Catching the thrown object he saw it was a small metallic box with an opening “A DNA key, just stick your finger in there and your TALOS 3 suit will be unlocked for your use, can’t have just anybody using the thing now can we” sticking his thumb into the device he felt a slight pain as a small needle pierced his skin then the small box gave a beep and flashed green. “What are you guys waiting? Go!”

When he finally got to the helicopter hangar and stood before his new armor he immediately fell in love with it, instead of the black metallic color of the Specter armor this one was more opaque, it was also even sleeker than it, instead of being made from different metallic parts that connected together it was more like a whole body suit with only a single opening at the back, the helmet was smaller and, instead of the wide visor covering the whole face there were two sharp glasses in place of the eyes.

“Improved kinetic dispersion, better hydraulic system, smaller and more durable power cells, 98% range of movement, absolutely 100% body armor instead of the 95% of the Specter one, we even found a way to make Satayev glass into a fluid and filled the armor with it so it even has a better magic resistance finally, we integrated adrenaline and troll serum shots inside” told him the tech genius taking care of the armor until he arrived “Thanks, I will try not to damage this one so much”

TALOS 3 armor setCLASSA+

DEFENSE

SLASH6BLUNT6

PIERCE5MAGIC5

ABILITIES

Optical camouflageThermal camouflage

Omni vision (helmet)Aim assist (helmet)

Radio communicationsKinetic dispersionHeat dispersionLife assist

He put on the usual spandex suit (he knew it was not spandex but some kind of highly technological material) them got some help getting into the armor, it felt absolutely perfect as it adapted to his muscles until he didn’t fell like he was wearing anything “It’s perfect” “Of course it is now go”

Putting all his blades on their proper places in the armor he chose two new weapons besides his own sidearm, the first one a combat shotgun while the second was a sniper rifle, after his last mission he had learned that there is no such thing as too much firepower, then stacked up in ammunitions, his armor was actually lighter than the previous one so he could take more in his pack.

Modern Winchestor model 3 CLASSA-

ATACK

SLASH0BLUNT10

PIERCE9MAGIC0

ABILITIES

+ 1 STR

ASW Draco 200 CLASSA

ATACK

SLASH0BLUNT8

PIERCE11MAGIC0

ABILITIES

+ 1 DEX+1 STR

When he entered the helicopter the entire Beta team was still wearing the Specter armor but Eric was clearly different, his armor was actually brown and far bulkier than the previous one, obviously designed to magnify his strength and endurance, it fit him very well, Aaron strapped himself in and continued to practice with his strings, he used a similar technique to knitting to train their dexterity and fine control

Congratulations, you have recovered 1 DEX point

Eric started discussing with the other Einherjar about this survivor camp they were going to but he had no interest in it so he laid back and dozed off, when he finally woke up again they were almost there, “…and they have even managed to secure a food supply”, yawning he turned towards the guy who was still talking “You do know it won’t be so easy to deal with the survivors right?” Eric turned his way questioning “What do you mean?” “well we are the government, we are the ones who didn’t tell them anything and failed to keep their city safe, they survived alone till now and some leader times probably control the camp they won’t like us just waltzing in there and…”

The entire helicopter lurched sideways violently and he hit his head on the back of his seat “What the fuck?” “We are under attack get ready!”