We'd lost too many people that night, the worst I'd seen since the hospital. 6 people dead, a dozen bed ridden, wounds and ailments far beyond what the tonics could do… but they would survive.

My family, of whom I included Sylvie, Lyra and Erza, were all OK even though they had been attacked in the tunnels.

Bar Sylvie getting a minor wound and Erza having to fight off a horde of Locusts with Marri providing protection with her crazy barrier, they'd survived incredibly well with zero casualties.

If they hadn't gone down there, the people in the escape tunnel would have been in deep shit. Another thing to plan better.

The rest of that day was spent clearing the mess and attending rushed funerals and community meetings. We couldn't afford to mourn for long and we needed to know what had happened and how we could stop it going forward, plus there was much to repair.

The bodies were cremated,

It was not clear exactly what happened because the kids on the watch had sadly been killed. The young kid with the slingshot, Gunner, and a girl whose name I didn't know. I say kids although they were around 18.. far too young still.

Sleep that night had been difficult, stress and worry kept me from fully falling asleep but there was also a strange energy inside me, as if it was the night before Christmas and I was 6 again, blocking my mind from fully shutting off.

There was no chance of gaining access to my garden as a result. An interesting law of Majik so to speak that applied to everyone, yet Triya was an exception. She could go there at will, but it hurt her like hell so it was pretty redundant.

My thoughts continued like this, drifting about in a half sleep state, thinking back on more of the day's events.

Part of the meetings involved speaking more to the people that I'd brought back, and their experiences in the town areas.

The three adults, Ven, Yalina and Sofi and some of the kids and it turns out that wave attacks were just part of Sunday lunch where they came from although a key difference was that in town they didn't fight off the hordes, they just hid or ran from them.

But it was encouraging to hear from others how they had fought viciously to defend our place, considering they had only just arrived.

Other than that, Sofi had made a tearful plea for anyone willing to help her get to her flat in town, where her boyfriend and 4 year old son should be… hearing that was just..

I sighed and rubbed my face, there was early morning light streaming through the blinds signalling it was time for me to get up.

It was spring time and a new day, lots to do.

The weather was warmer but not by much and aside from the sounds of the start of construction projects - those builders were early birds - and the occasional distant monster noise, it was just eerily quiet. Birds were becoming rarer these days and people had also started noticing an unsettling lack of insects.

The earth was dying… or so it felt like.

It made me worry for our future, for Lones future. Part of me kept pretending that society would somehow sort the mess out and get back on track, but reality was cruel and relentless. It dished out reminders that from now on it was either bloody life or bloody death. No more playgrounds, no more birthday parties, no more fast food deliveries, no more movies and TV shows and a real possibility of no more humanity.

What a bitch eh.

I laughed to myself.

Fuck that. I refuse to let reality beat me into submission. If it wants to drop me into the extinction pot, I'll just prove it wrong by surviving the shit out of all this… apocalypse stew. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a bunch of nightmares stop Lone from having at least one cheesy disco music kids party.

After another usual morning routine, in typical fantasy village fashion, I headed to the community task board where tasks were posted up with a simple "do this and I'll give you xyz".

Sad to say EXP was not any of the rewards, nor could you expect an epic sword or piece of armour, but there were some rare artefacts and treasures to be obtained. Deliver a bottle of men's deodorant. Reward: A rare collectible card of a dragon with specific coloured eyes… or a bottle of ginger ale. Wow yes please.

Scanning around, I noticed Sofi had put up a task..

"Please. I need an escort home, else please go to Sunrise apartment 56, near the station and bring my bf Depo and my little boy Felix back to me. They're not dead, I know it. Reward: whatever I can give you I'll do it. Please."

"Fuck sake.." I groaned. No matter how much I would try, I knew I wouldn't be able to walk away from that. Not when I knew I could probably make it…. probably. But also because if that was my little boy or wife, I'd hope someone else would help them. I couldn't help but picture the boyfriend sacrificing himself and leaving the little kid all on his own to fend for himself…

"ARGH FINE." I stomped off, wondering what the fuck I was playing at having a conscience.

I'd go spend some time with Marri and Lone and then explain the plan and see if Triya was up for it. She was one of the fastest fighters here and Xno would be the safest bet for scouting, not to mention she grew up here so she'd know the best route.

I spent a few hours with Marri and Lone at home. Lone was really doing well and he would lie on his back and look up at me with wide searching eyes and I'd stick my tongue out and smile and he'd look at my mouth and then crease his eyes with an insanely cute, wide open, toothless smile.

WHAT A CUTE STRAPPING YOUNG LAD!!!

In the ages to come, he’ll be known as ‘Lone The Maiden-Heart-Slayer!’

All things considered, he was such a happy child.

After I floated the idea of helping Sofi, Marri was not best pleased. I told her I would never do anything she didn't feel comfortable with. But in the end she started agreeing after I promised I'd go with a group and that we'd turn back at the first sign of severe danger.

Plans changed, I left to organise a group, aiming to travel the following day.

A group meant slower travel, but it definitely made it less dangerous, depending on who went of course.

Travel..speed..

Wait.

Slapping myself on the forehead, I checked my skills and focused on something that nearly made me faint.

I SlipfoldPartially recovered skill data impacts core functions.

Create a single logical marker at a time that you can Slipfold back to at any time. Markers are destroyed in the Slipfold process.

Holy shit this can't be real. How did I forget this?

Majik fireballs, sentient weapons and monsters were one thing, but… if this means what I think it does, teleporting through space?

I needed to go somewhere quiet and test this asap.

And I know just the guy…

..

"Uhhh. Remind me, why do we need to do this in my garden?" Steve was frowning from his deckchair whilst I practised using the skill without activating the actual teleporting or… wormhole door thingy.

"Because my dearest Steve, you're a dirt bender and, without trying to spoil the surprise, I'll need your help in case I get stuck in the dirt. Plus you have one of the biggest gardens with no neighbours."

Come to think of it, his house must be worth a fortune. Or rather, used to be.. It was a fairly generic large square garden with simple turf and a dirt border that held growing vegetables and other edible looking plants. A standard 8 ft high light brown fence with a high bush growing up past it, providing extra privacy. I was at the bottom of the garden, and he was on the paved patio, which had a simple table, chairs and a sun umbrella.

"Dirt.. bende…ahhh ha! good one! Ah what the hell, now you've got me hooked. I'm ready to be surprised! Lest you owe me a beer eh Goduyne?" he waggled his eyebrows.

I grinned. Alright, the deal is on. No need in delaying any longer.

The method to place an anchor felt simple and easy to understand, just like I’d practised before.

I would look at the spot, imagine I was standing there, and then a faint haze of Majik would drift over and float around the location. The haze had a subtle white hue to it and as I focused on it further, I felt an analyse kick in.

You own this [I Slipfold] anchor.

Damn this is exciting.

“Woa..do you see that?” I asked Steve, not daring to look away.

“See what? I don’t see anything?” he squinted to where I was pointing.

“Hmm okay. Here goes, wish me luck.” I took a deep breath and shook out my arms and legs.

In order to activate the skill I needed to imagine me grasping the anchor and pulling it towards me.

In a high level logical sense, I grabbed onto the anchor and gingerly tugged at it.

There was a strange abyssal sound, like a cosmic orchestral hum or warble that stopped as soon as I did.

Shiiiiiiiit this is too spooky… comon’ try again!

This time I pulled a bit harder, but still very carefully and the orchestral hum rose louder in response. I could see a ripple of movement appear out of thin air right in front of me and..for a short second it was like I was peeling two slices of water out of the air that opened up to my anchor's location.

“Shit! What the hell was that!” Steve cried out.

“What did you see?” I snapped my head to him and cancelled what I was doing.

“Y-you…um I’m not sure. It looked like the garden…you’re not pulling some interstellar malarky in my yard are you?” He scrunched his forehead up in concern.

A burst of laughter spilled out of me and I shook my head and grinned.

“Not quite…but..”

This time I pulled as hard as I could, determined to just go for it. The abyssal hum blared at me in anger and a grunt was forced out of me as I felt something yank on my insides, hard. In front of me I saw two layers of what looked like liquid peel apart, flowing over me, causing my head and vision to stretch and spin at a thousand miles an hour, and, with a short blast of air..

I was suddenly standing in the anchor spot.

Turning my head to look at an ashen faced, thoroughly gobsmacked Steve. I grinned and immediately doubled over to hack up my guts - a small amount of bile and fluid.

“urrrkkkkk-I did i-ruuuukkkk-it!” The motion sickness faded quickly, not that it phases me at all, and I wiped my face with my sleeve and walked over to grab my hard-earned beer from the table.

“You…can..teleport...oh my slutty heavens..” Snickering at his strange slur, I watched as Steve moved to where I had done my first; what did the skill say? ‘Slipfold’, and he was inspecting the area the same way as if he was a teenager that had found a porn magazine in the woods.

Christ, that took a lot out of me..I sipped my golden beverage as I checked my resources.

GODUYNE

STRY.KYR - MAGN.22.508

HP 273/275

MP 190/297

EP 85%

DS 100%

Flipping Hell that took over 100 points of MP!

My dreams of warping around life were dashed in an instant, but still… I JUST FRICKIN TELEPORTED!!

“This is…I mean this is huge! This is incredible! I can’t…Hmm. I wonder…” Steve was muttering and blurting things out.

“Told ya you would be impressed.” I raised my bottle, cheers-ing myself.

I watched Steve as he remained silent for a few moments before he jogged back to me with a wide grin and sat down.

“What do you say to testing this skill?” He had a glint in his eye and I suspect I had a glint in mine too.

“That’s why I came to you Steve..you’re not afraid to look reality breaking possibly-death in the face and say ‘how can I exploit this as much as possible!’”

We both cackled and then the brainstorming began.

..

.

A couple of hours whizzed by, filled with some hilarious and highly dangerous tests. We had tried as much as we could, restricted by the limits of my MP recovery.

Which was pretty good in my opinion, recorded at being able to recover back up to full in 5-6 minutes from less than 10%. This could be sped up further by consuming food or drink, really anything it seemed, and after a few bevvies and some raucous laughter, it was even confirmed that grazing on the grass, mooing like a cow would even regen a point or two.

But as for the serious findings, we’d found some interesting discoveries.

Firstly, I could bring objects with me as long as they were within roughly 50cm of myself. If they were any further, they would be simply severed.

Steve lost a couple of brooms running this test, where I held them sticking out both in front and above me and then Slipfolded. Half came with me and the other half dropped to the floor, perfectly severed. He described details of how it appeared from the side, like the space around me was being distorted through a lens until I winked out of existence and reappeared at the anchor point.

I could bring objects and plants with me, even one of Steve’s golems, but I had to be in contact with it, meaning in theory I could bring a person or two with only the volumetric restriction to consider.

Steve wasn’t willing to risk it however, no matter how many beers we blasted through.

And if an object was placed within my boundary but I wasn’t touching it, it would stay where it was but wobble slightly from the rush of air that was generated from the process.

We did try a few other stupid things like he threw a football at me as I was Slipfolding both the start and end point, laughing as he kept missing me..until he managed to hit me at the exact moment and the ball simply disappeared. It didn’t reappear on the other side either.

That had shocked us into silence before Steve practically wet himself with laughter, howling about how some other dimensional race would probably start worshipping the holy ball relic that appeared from nowhere.

Some final tests concluded that I couldn’t Slipfold whilst moving but that was due to the intense concentration needed to execute the ability, so a hurdle I might be able to overcome with more practice.

After I told Steve about my plans for the next day, he was more than happy to brave the trip with me and recommended we keep the group as four people, preferably Triya and Catara if they wanted to come but we could consider taking someone with medical skills.

He used terms like ‘DPS’, ‘Healer’ and ‘Tank’ but I immediately redacted them from my memories; the cringe was too strong for me still. I preferred terms like frontline, medical and ‘Heavy-Ultra-Wizard-Mastervirgin-9000’ haha oh jeez… I really gotta stop with the dad humour…

As expected, the conversation with Catara was short and to the point. ‘Yeah, sure I’ll come. Tell Marri I’ll be round for cards tomorrow night.’ Not even a smidgen of apprehension or hesitance!!

Triya I had found round a table with some of the new kids and a few of the veteran community members.

Laughing and joking around in typical rowdy fashion, she’d hopped over the table to speak with me, not caring she was wearing a dress and flashing her mates, causing the other girls to squeal with laughter and the boys to cheer with a few newer faces blushing uncomfortably. Triya only had to give a sideways look and raise one finger in a mildly stern gesture for the boy's enthusiasm to fizzle out, replaced with awkward coughing and murmured apologies.

It was good to see high spirits, especially after recent events.

Everyone had a drink of some sort, mostly some form of alcohol watered down, paid for with the communities token system. The token system put in place was pretty neat and seemed to be working well. Everyone in the community was entitled to at least 1 square meal a day but frivolous things such as alcohol and certain snacks could be bought using tokens. Tokens could be earned for either guarding or scavenging, but weren’t actually physical things, there was just a ledger in the tavern that kept track of people’s balances. The tavern being the place where food and drink was stored and also where the guard team leaders happened to run most of the operations from.

In all honesty, I doubted the ledger was kept to strict standards, but it was a good idea.

Our conversation was also brief and Triya only took a few moments to pause, thinking it through before agreeing to come.

Even though it wasn’t a competition, it was common knowledge she was one of the strongest in the community, probably the reason why she could silence a bunch of lads with just a look.

She bid me farewell as she returned back to her table and crew, but the thought about strength got me thinking on whether we should find a system where we could keep track of everyone’s MAGN or some sort of metric of aptitude.

Maybe a ranking type system perhaps to better organise us? Probably a good conversation to have with the community and team leaders. Hierarchical structures are pretty archaic, but

For another day.

For now, it's time to get an early night. I don't think I'll have trouble falling asleep.

…

..

.

I found myself lying on the galaxy bed in my garden of growth.

Sitting up, I looked around and she was next to me deep asleep. Gently, I prodded her, causing her to stir, roll over and grumble, but she did not wake up.

I got a distinct feeling that she needed plenty of rest, yet I couldn’t understand why she would...

Regardless, I listened to that instinct and hauled myself up and went on about my business.

First the maelstrom.

GODUYNE

STRY.KYR - MAGN.24.597

HP 305 / 305

MP 329 / 329

EP 100%

DS 100%

SWRD 27

SHLD 27

FTHR 37

GLYP 37

2 Attribute Points Available.

5 Skill Points Available.

My eyes widened at the sight of jumping from 22 -> 24 MAGN. A surprise,.but a welcomed one that felt justified given the sheer number of Organ Locust that we had slain.

The number of skill points available initially confused me before I recalled the previous time I’d failed to spend 3.

No matter. I’m going to chalk that drunk episode up to the huge increase from that night.

…

Huh. Thinking about it - possibly might also explain why she’s conked out too…

Anyway, that should do it.

SWRD 27

SHLD 28

FTHR 38

GLYP 37

There was a pleasant wave of heat and cold that washed over me. Followed by the feeling you get when you've been sitting down for ages and you get up and do a stretch. The only discomfort was slight pins and needles.

I had dropped a point in shield as I was concerned about lacking in HP, and I put my other point into feather because of how amazing it felt being so agile. I wanted to see how far I could go with that.

Sword, paradoxically, still didn't feel right to invest in at the moment, even though I was entirely close combat based.

And the few times I'd tried to use a few melee weapons had uncovered some sort of phobia or trauma, possibly stemming from the butter knife incident, so even after lengthy debates and arguments with friends and Marri, I'd still always choose my reliable fists, body and shields over something that could get knocked out of my hands.

My skills were next and there was an interesting note left at the top.

Pending Skill Integrations

I Phase Dash

I EXP Well

III SMDS

Continuing..

That's why I couldn't see those two skills!

Once I'd remembered about the Slipfold ability and the rest, I had tried to check for the phase dash and EXP well, but they simply didn't appear.

Usually with each upgrade or ability, I would undergo some kind of virtual experience that was relevant to the unlock, such as repeating the combat moves or physical action as my brain was rewired with the knowledge.

Nearly always with some form of pain.

..

Ooo-hup! Speak of the devil!

My heart started palpitating and my body shivered with increasing violence.

All of a sudden, my skin felt like it was being ejected off my body and I had been dipped in salt, a terrible soreness and sharp pain coated every single millimetre of my being. Before I had a chance to scream it was replaced with a glorious, soft, smooth feeling, akin to being moisturised with a silk cloth and cocoa butter.

Then with a gasp, I took one step and blurred forward in a stream of shadowy Majik, possibly 10 long strides worth in the blink of an eye. New knowledge appeared in my mind and when I turned around and blurred back to the maelstrom, there was a short update.

Phase dash and EXP Well integration complete.

Phase dash - Rapid movement skill.

"It's not just a phase, mom, it's a dash."

Burst forward, leaving afterimages and shadows in your wake.

Range: 10m

Cost: 10 MP, 10% EP.

EXP Well - Create and place a maximum of [1] ambient EXP collection devices, from which you can retrieve collected EXP from - no max capacity.

About as exciting as a brussel sprout smoothie. Yikes.

Generates 1 EXP / Hour / Device.

Cost: 1MP.

The sass had started coming out of nowhere, and I wasn't sure it was appropriate considering the apocalypse… but I couldn't help but smile at the text.

Although that bullshit EXP well skill has cost me a precious point that could possibly mean the difference between life and death..ugh.

Why couldn't I place as many as I wanted? What use does this really have?

I mean, maaaybe it will help people in the community that are really low MAGN... If it gives 24 EXP a day, then perhaps that will be enough to get people above MAGN.1.

Huh, I suppose that's not too bad then, if it helps save lives then I'll take the smoothie.

Note: Must be MAGN.1 to use.

ARE YOU F-

SMDS system auto calibration..

Outstanding feature set upgrade enabled..

Upgrade complete.

..

..

Testing basic configuration options.

..

Conf Mirror..

Blagh okay, now you've got my attention. Better be good.

My shields juddered and split, in a mitosis sort of way. I felt the new pair spread out on my back, giving me 4 thinner shields in total. Two darted over my shoulders into my favourite mantis position and the remaining two spread out on either side of my waist. I threw a few punches and each shield would independently either stab or move defensively, depending on what I was doing. Okay that is sick.

Conf Ribbon..

Another judder and they all merged and stretched out into a long vertebral-like, thick, ribbon that was about 4m in length with a sharp point tip that clacked open and shut like a pincer. A few more air jabs and the ribbon would ripple, flow and attack in a blur, like a scorpion stinger, over my shoulders or from the sides. EXP Well Lost Point? Who cares about that!

Conf Exo..

This time the whole structure collapsed back and turned into a ferrofluid and spread out and formed structures around my torso, arms and legs that resembled a partial chitinous exoskeleton. It looked oddly mechanical yet organic, with strange hexagon patterned strips mixed in with coral reef like webbing.

Shut up and take my money. This is insane!! If these are only basic configurations… could there be something more advanced?

Probably. It is Majik after all.

My toolset had expanded by leaps and bounds in just a few days, both through chance and bloodshed.

And although it is terrifying that an individual could obtain such abilities, I was just grateful for being said individual.

Integrations Complete.

The familiar skill information and tablets materialised.

Skills

III Shoulder Rush -> IV Null Surge [5]

Evolves skill into Null Surge.

Inherits Shoulder rush and upgrades. Allows you to drag targets when in use. Gain 5% surge of SWRD and SHLD that lasts for 5 seconds on use.

III SMDS - Majiglyph -> IV SMDS - Majiglyph [5]

Shields unlock the ability to launch projectile shards.

II OMDC -> III OMDC [6] (3+3)

Nervous System (NS) long latency reduced by maximum amount. Near zero-latency reaction speeds.

II ANALYSE -> III ANALYSE [50]

Vastly Expands data retrievable.

I NEC -> II NEC [5]

Share this skill with others. Note: They will need to expend SP to enable. Skill will be Tier I.

I Phase Dash -> II Phase Dash [2]

Whilst Phasing, you are immune to all Majik based attacks.

I EXP Well -> II Exp Well [2]

You can now deploy [2] units.

Taking a good look, I pondered over the final decision I had to make.

Whether I want to spend my remaining points or if I should save them.

It wasn’t long before it started to become a struggle and my mind started to get fuzzy - heavy exhaustion was kicking in - but I had been instantly drawn to the projectile upgrade for the shields.

My instincts were telling me that the NS latency upgrade would change everything, but I had zero range capabilities and… damn this is bloody tough.

Should I even care about range or just focus on being as strong as possible with melee..

Having 'near zero latency reaction speeds' didn't necessarily mean I could dodge bullets or something. My brain would still need to be able to process and register things and my body itself would need to be able to dodge, however the phase dash would be the perfect pairing for that situation… if it was upgraded.

Huffing a frustrated sigh, I selected the range attack tablet before I could overthink it any more.

I could die saving stupid points up, better to use them now.

IV SMDS - Majiglyph [5]

Shields unlock the ability to launch projectile shards.

IV SMDS - Majiglyph

Shield constructs can now fire a shard based projectile.

Range: 5m-200m. Depending on the type of shard.

Cost: 20MP, 16% EP, 3% BP. Costs are based on current level and attributes.

Each configuration has a unique projectile.

Prime (default): 3 dagger shards per shield.

Mirror: 3 needle shards per shield.

Ribbon: 1 javelin shard per stinger.

Exo: 1 razor shard per limb.

There was barely any discomfort as the changes took effect. Only a wave of anxiety and cold, and after that, I cycled through the new configurations and performed the shard attack for each.

Prime, my default shield structure, had me swing my shields in sequence, right then left, like I was pitching baseballs from them, and 3 thin purple, azure and black rectangles detached and hurtled away.

Each shard was about 30cm.

Mirror, the quad structure, had all four shields eject a spray all at once of long thin needles the same mix of colours.

Each shard was also about 30cm.

Ribbon, the long stinger was quite different in that I had to brace against the floor whilst the pincer split the ribbon into a fork and a 2m javelin shard formed in between the gap. Lines and gaps in the whole structure charged up with an azure glow, before crescendoing and railing the long shard off into the distance with colossal speed.

Exo, the exoskeleton type, was pretty straight forward in that on my forearms and shins, a thin sma spinning razor disc formed and buzzed menacingly off through the air once fired.

Knowledge cemented itself, like I’d taken a ‘How to shoot Shards - For Dummies’ and stuffed it into my brain and with it came the understanding of several things.

Firstly, the mass being ejected would need to be replenished using Majik Points and energy points, I'd lose some Block Potential as well, so I'd need to be careful there.

Secondly, there were optimal movements to get the most out of each projectile and now I knew them. For example, if I didn’t brace myself for the javelin, accuracy would be impacted.

Thirdly, the projectiles were considered to be Majik based, not your regular bog-standard projectile. Although what this truly meant was unclear but I assumed they would be stronger than your average rock.

Either way I was thoroughly satisfied.

Right, I'm absolutely battered. Definitely time to sleep.

And sleep I did..

…

..

.