Aura Farming (Apocalypse LitRPG) [BOOK ONE COMPLETE]

"Damn it." John clicked his tongue as he ran along the garden. "I'm gonna have to help these weaklings escape. Maybe I'll come back and clean up the trash monsters later?"

Hopefully, none of the 'weaklings' in question had some kind of augmented hearing ability. That'd be really awkward. He didn't know how he'd go about explaining to them that he couldn't run away without a good excuse.

John kept to the trees as he ran, using the scant cover of darkness when he could. The fiery sky prevented any true shadows from forming, but there was enough shade provided by the tall hedges and trees that lined the massive garden's edges for his Ninja Skill to work with. Besides, he had a Spell to augment that. Not that it was perfect, in the circumstances.

Never had he been more frustrated with his limit of one spell at a time than now. Constantly having to swap between Mana Sense and Shadow Stream rather than using them simultaneously made things so much less efficient. He had to rely on only a few heartbeats of Mana Sense at a time before switching back, wanting to prioritise putting as much darkness around himself as possible. No monsters were going to get an easy line of sight on him if he could help it.

But the trees ran out in what felt like no time, and he reached the boundary fence at the end of the garden, nestled deep within the bushes. Ninja's parkour skills let him pick out the gaps in the bushes and hop straight up the fence with only a few scrapes to his palms and knees, and he peered over. The sight on the other side earned a grimace.

It was a flat, manicured garden. The only plants were low hedges that probably wouldn't reach above his thighs, and they were confined to a small area at the far end of the garden nearest the actual house—another mansion, red brick this time, only two stories. The vast majority of the garden was a well-kept football pitch. No cover to speak of.

John cursed under his breath, quickly dropping down and pivoting right along the fence line towards the corner to see what other gardens bordered this one. There was no good news to be had. It seemed the mansion owners were the only ones who valued plant life, and even they left it confined to the outskirts of their property. Their direct neighbour's garden was largely paved, and the diagonally adjacent garden was another flat green lawn.

All things considered, if every way was equally exposed, then his decision had to come down to which direction would lead to facing the lowest number of monsters. He switched to Mana Sense and sent out a few quick pulses, then grimaced, crouching low.

Standing at the end of the garden, his range now only just reached the mansion itself. The other properties bordering it boasted equally obscene spans of land, and so his Mana Sense wasn't really giving him much, from here.

Fuck it.

Delving into the interface, he swiftly sought out Mana Sense.

Increased Mana Sense Level 0 -> Level 1!

-500 Aura

That's better, he thought as the next wave radiated outwards, covering over double the distance it had a moment ago.

Any triumph he might have felt was short-lived. In the few heartbeats he allowed himself, he stopped counting how many monsters were in range after twenty, as that was barely a fraction of them all. They were all converging on the mansion, answering the red-eyed centipede monster's call, but how long would it be before they caught sight of the three humans frantically sprinting across the lawn?

John had far outpaced them to the rear hedge, with Accelerate and his head-start giving him an advantage. A good ten seconds had passed in real time, and they were barely three quarters of the way across yet. Armour weighing them down was no excuse. At least they were being quiet about it, their eyes alight with varying degrees of determination or fear.

Looking back at the mansion, engulfed in fire, he could still see the centipede monster on the roof. It was no longer in its howling pose. Instead, it had moved to the edge, its form silhouetted by the flames. Its red eyes were watching the three retreating humans.

Before he could think better of it, John had already drawn and loosed a Soul Arrow. The shimmering silver spell soared through the air. But the centipede monster didn't even have to move. The projectile was unaffected by wind, but his aim from this distance was imperfect even with Marksman, and the shot sailed a good few feet over the monster's head.

The red cloud was finally emerging from the mansion, and the marble golem was lumbering behind it. They weren't really threats anymore. Not as long as the trio were faster than a pensioner with a Zimmer frame. But more were coming. As John watched, another centipede came skittering around the side of the mansion, charging across the grass at incredible speed. It'd catch the humans in seconds.

John had been steadily building up more darkness in his hiding spot, but he cut it off and loosed another Soul Arrow at the centipede. It saw the projectile coming and was forced to evade, slowing it down. John kept shooting, stopping it from building up speed again, buying the humans time. This couldn't last. He couldn't keep playing defence for them. More monsters were arriving on the scene now, and they weren't all coming from the direction of the mansion.

Time to go.

With one last look at the fleeing humans to check they weren't going to be run down, he turned and darted back into the bushes. A shout came from behind him, but he ignored it. Hopping the fence, he leapt into the garden that directly bordered the mansion's land at the back. According to his Mana Sense, this felt like the best direction. There were only, oh, half a dozen monsters likely to come this route on their way to answer the giant centipede's call. Barely anything, compared to the other ways.

Darkness billowed around him as he reactivated Shadow Stream under the power of Accelerate. He directed it high into the air at full blast, creating fountains of shadow five times his height. The magical shadows wouldn't drift into the air lazily like smoke, but they wouldn't cascade down immediately like water either. They were something in between. He kept it up until Accelerate ran out. Hopefully that would provide a bit of cover.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

He heard curses and snapping plants as the other three came charging through the bushes. Any sense of caution had truly fallen to the wayside for that lot. Not that he could blame them.

John dashed further along the fence from where he judged them to be, then started lobbing fireballs right into the fence. He wasn't going to give the monsters converging on the mansion an easy time of chasing them, if he could help it. He heard cries of alarm as the wood immediately caught alight.

"Hurry!" he heard someone half-wheeze, half-shout. A woman's voice, hoarse like she'd taken a punch to the throat, with a Scottish brogue.

"I'm trying," came a man's reply, shrill and clearly terrified. A Geordie, by the sounds of his accent.

A third cut in. Another woman, with an American drawl he couldn't place. "Move your lanky ass, Chester!"

The man he'd seen on the security feed pulled himself up and over the fence, moving through precisely the same spot John had. He could only assume they'd found the small area he'd cleared with his body. The Ninja part of him raged at the idea he'd left signs of his passing, even though it only played to his advantage in the circumstances.

It felt weird to look at another human being and immediately realise they were more uncoordinated than John himself. Though John supposed he wasn't that uncoordinated anymore, thanks to the cheat codes that had been grafted onto his mind. The man lost his grip on his mace as the upper half of his body flopped over the fence. He let out a little yelp of fright when the fence groaned and creaked beneath his weight. Cracks rent the wood, and the panel started to visibly buckle.

John could only watch in bafflement as the fence collapsed, and the man tumbled face-first towards the ground with a shriek.

In real life, the guy was pale, but his eyes were dark. The camera hadn't done justice to just how big he was. How did someone who clearly spent so much time working out appear so clumsy? Even pre-upgrade, John probably wouldn't have fumbled quite that bad. Oh, he would've fallen off, certainly. But collapsing it? No way. The army helmet and hockey goalie armour only made him look all the stranger.

"Chester!" The American woman came through the hole he'd made, quickly kneeling at his side to help him up. Out of everything he'd seen today, a woman wearing actual chain mail ranked pretty high up there for most surreal, somehow. Her crossbow was slung over her shoulder. Beneath her motorcycle helmet he could make out a freckled face with red hair stuck to her skin by sweat. Green eyes were full of sympathy for her fallen comrade.

"Come on, dude," she said to Chester. "Can't be sticking around, here."

The woman with the machete and armour stepped through next. In contrast to the red-head in the chain mail, she made her plate armour look natural, like she'd always worn out, and anyone who thought it was strange was the really strange one. It clinked and clanked as she walked. Beneath the visor of her medieval helm, hard gunmetal grey eyes went straight to John and widened.

He was standing a few metres away, letting darkness billow around him, partially concealing his form. Glowing red eyes hadn't been an option, sadly, but he figured it was a pretty good first introduction.

Mercifully, he got a notification a beat later, confirming he didn't look like a complete fucking dork.

+200 Aura

But the armoured woman only gave him a shaky nod before reaching down and physically dragging Chester to his feet by the elbow. The man let out a sob.

"I fucking hate all this, Lily," he said to the American.

"We all do," replied the armoured woman. She was still staring at John. "You're the lad who helped us out, aye?"

John didn't dare saying anything too complex for fear he'd fuck it up. His heart was beating harder now than when he'd been fighting his first monster. "Yes," he said.

The American woman, Lily, spun to face him, and Chester let out a yelp of fright as he did the same, though he immediately backed away and behind the two women. His eyes were so wide it was almost comical.

"Well, cheers," the armoured woman said. "I'm Jade, and—"

"I don't care," John snapped, then realised that was super rude, and they'd think he didn't care about them in general. What he'd actually meant to say was he didn't need to know that right now; introductions didn't matter when he could both hear and Sense monsters charging towards them. "Get down," he growled, angry at himself for already fucking up, and more than ready to direct that frustration at the monster he felt approaching.

He activated Accelerate, then watched in slow motion as the armoured woman immediately grabbed her comrades and dragged them down with her as she threw herself to the dirt. A heartbeat later, John had a Soul Arrow drawn and loosed, spearing through the space where they'd just been standing and continuing on into the face of the centipede monster that had been sneaking through the gap made by Chester's blundering attempt at climbing the fence.

This centipede monster was smaller than the red-eyed one, and evidently slower. It didn't react in time beyond slightly turning its head away as the Soul Arrow impaled it in the face right by its mandibles and burst out the other end. Gore splattered behind it, but John wanted to be sure. Switching rapidly, he manifested a Fireball in the hand he'd used to a Soul Arrow from and lobbed it with all his strength. The small orb of flame crossed the distance in a blink, and it struck just as Accelerate ran out.

Flames rolled over the centipede monster's face. It dropped to the ground and thrashed around, but another Soul Arrow through the skull stilled it.

John watched it for a moment with Soul Vision until its life force faded away, then when he was certain, he switched back to Shadow Stream and let the darkness billow out around him once more.

+800 Aura

When he turned his attention back to the three humans, he found them all staring at him, wide-eyed, mouths agape.

His heart fumbled around as it tried and failed to find its regular rhythm. Throat tightening, he frantically thought back over the last few seconds. What was wrong? Had he done something weird? Was it the way he was standing, somehow? He'd always theorised that his body language put people off, since so often strangers seemed to instinctively dislike him without him even saying or doing anything. Had he done it again here? Or was it in the way he talked?

He'd thought the Aura increase had meant he'd been cool, but he recognised the way they were staring at him right now, full of apprehension and disbelief. That was the face people made when he messed up.

Shit, he thought. I knew they'd be offended about telling them I don't care. But that wasn't what I really meant! How do I explain it to them without making things even more awkward…?

In the end, he heaved a sigh and decided not to bother.

"We need to get out of here," he said instead, hoping that didn't also come off as weird through some social rule that was a mystery to him. Then, with a ping of Mana Sense that he tried not to get too panicked about the results of, he picked a direction and started running.

A second later, he heard the trio follow him without a word.