NOVEL NEXT Chapter 30: Skeletons
<Alex, Real - Prepare, Inside the lower back of a Flesh Golem of the Plague Guard>
Alex triggered Force Burst while quite literally within the body of the beast.
The mana ran through his body, building upon his skin, but it seemed to be struggling to trigger.
Oh, come on! It's a magical effect, not direct magic. That can't be the same thing. He really hoped it wasn't the same thing… otherwise he was quite thoroughly about to die.
He felt the spell as it ran in loops and whirls around the fringes of his body, following the innate knowledge he'd been given along with the spell.
He felt his own lungs burning for air and truly grasped the desperateness of his own situation.
Thus, without much time to think, Alex took more mana and added it to the spell that was still trying to trigger. He added an extra 10 MP, effectively doubling the cost.
The looping whirls pushed outward, trying to uncoil, but the spell just couldn't seem to trigger.
He doubled it again. The magics pushed a bit more but still didn't seem able to trigger.
Finally, he just grabbed a massive chunk of his remaining power and threw it into the spell-pattern of Force Burst.
That seemed to work.
BOOM-WHOMP-WHOMP
If Alex hadn't been the source and epicenter of the blast, he would have been obliterated. Of that, he had no doubt.
As it was, he briefly saw slits of light appear all around him as the flesh golem's immense physicality resisted the tremendous sphere of pressure originating within it.
Then, the whole creature burst apart, painting the hallway.
Alex gasped, sucking in breaths of not-so-fresh air.
He caught a glimpse of Lenka's ash-white face staring at him from down the hall, and he gave a little wave before something struck him from above.
Well, to be fair one thing physically struck him as something else metaphorically struck him: There'd been no kill notice.
As to what physically struck him, it was a huge chunk of boneless muscle flopping from the ceiling to land on him.
In pure reaction, he hit it with a Basic Life Transfusion and the massive putrid slab of meat puffed to dust.
Alex did start laughing then, mostly out of relief. "The bones are the source."
He jumped to his feet, immediately slipping in the ichor but catching his balance with a precise twisting of his body.
What happened next was a mad scramble to dust all non-connected flesh before it could reconnect with any bones.
That was thankfully pretty easy as those chunks were large and easy to identify.
Then, Alex cut, tore, and otherwise finagled the bones free of the remaining flesh to dust that too.
…There were a lot of bones, all human, seemingly having been used in various combinations to allow for the far larger frame.
Each bone still seemed inviolate to his magic—and had been untouched by the blast—so he simply stuck each one into his Inventory as soon as it was free, locking it away from the others. Thankfully, nothing about their anti-magical abilities protected them from being put into the Inventory.
He briefly wondered if it was because no mana was involved in the use of the skill, but that was a puzzle for another time.
It's good that we're still in the first group quest. When my Inventory shrinks, there is no way I could contain this. That meant he had to hurry. The time was running out.
As he handled each one, he got a good look at the long chains of not-quite-repeating, interconnected symbols carved across their surfaces and curves.
They were incredibly crude in appearance, but something about the power they exuded seemed to be enhanced by that very roughness, as if they somehow gained strength from the savagery.
The grooves also looked to have fully healed after the carving, the symbols somehow looking more ancient than the bones themselves, even though that made no sense at all.
Once each bone was in his Inventory, he made sure to keep a close eye on it in relation to the others in there, as well as keeping them separate. This thing was still alive, somehow, and he didn't want to take any chances.
It took him nearly all the time they had remaining to do it, but finally, the hallway was empty of flesh golem. It had helped that all the pieces had begun to wriggle and try to come together, thus highlighting them in the harsh illumination emanating from the rope of lights he still wore wrapped around his body.
The head had been… unpleasant to work with, but thankfully, the hole where the spinal cord came out from the brain was large enough for him to be able to reach in and scoop out the nasty, squishy thing in order to turn it to dust.
He only threw up a few times throughout the process, and Create Water was an invaluable tool to get the last bits out.
Finally, he looked around the hallway and couldn't find anything left. Nothing was moving. Nothing seemed to be left at all.
What? How is it not dead?
He was about to despair when the long awaited kill notice arrived.
Kill Notice:
You killed Flesh Golem of the Plague Guard (Uncommon), Level 12
Reward:
Experience to be granted when in a safe location.
Alex laughed as he staggered back down the hallway to Lenka. The woman didn't say anything as she worked to reseal the door before shepherding him to the gym.
He could not imagine trying to fight something like the flesh golem with any other threat nearby. Under basically any other circumstances, it would be a matter of trying to knock it down long enough to run away.
He shuddered, glancing at the other notice that had been queued up since back during his fight.
Apology Tutorial Notice:
New Aspects of a Spell Discovered
Force Burst (Uncommon):
Spend Mana to send a burst of Force magic outward from the caster.
All affected targets will be damaged and thrown as if they were the sole target of a perfect body slam executed by the caster.
New Aspects:
The caster can increase the force exerted by the skill by increasing mana spent.
The caster can prepare the spell beforehand, spending a small amount of mana as upkeep to keep it ready and waiting to be triggered with a simple thought.
Experience Earned.
That was very nice to see, honestly. It was also interesting that it was a Tutorial notice, which seemed to imply that once they were out, he shouldn't expect such hand-holding from the System.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
But none of that was important at the moment.
With less than a minute remaining, it was time for them to see the results of their first group quest.
And I need to find a place to dump this skeleton.
<James, Real - Prepare, High School Gymnasium Roof>
James reflexively checked his Inventory once again.
It was empty, of course. He'd managed to use it enough to gain the skill as Common, but it would still shrink, and he wasn't willing to risk something being in the 'wrong' part.
He had always been a bit compulsive, but only in the sense of needing his room organized and his things where they should go. He never had to lock things three times, or count stairs or anything. Regardless, that translated into him wanting to ensure he didn't have a pair of boxers bursting out of his chest just because he had been too busy to properly check.
That is a bit paranoid… But better safe than sorry.
He checked again.
To be fair, he was counting enemies below, and he didn't like what he was seeing.
He used a bit of mana to create a knife in his hand before throwing it with inhuman strength and accuracy, killing yet another zombie down in the horde below, down in the melee.
Kill Notice:
You killed Zombie Shambler (Common), Level 5
Reward:
Experience to be granted when in a safe location.
He was still rather uncomfortable with the fact that the roof wasn't considered a safe location, but he couldn't really do anything about that.
Below was… disconcerting. With no living person in easy sight, the undead were fighting each other, using their sheer numbers in order to level.
That would be great as it would be thinning their numbers for James and his group to fight through in the future, except for one thing.
More kept appearing.
They were weak, but their numbers seemed unending, their every death fueling the growth of the more threatening foes.
At first, James had mainly seen level twos and threes and basically all were shamblers, but now more and more were becoming more dangerous variants, and their levels were climbing.
Thankfully, they seemed to reset to level one when they mutated, but that was little comfort.
If they didn't move on soon, James and those with him would be left to fight a horde of creatures much too strong to face even one on one.
The first quest is about to be complete, though.
When that was complete, they'd clear the school… and then they would have to face that.
<Alex, Real - Prepare, High School Gym>
Alex and Lenka made it into the gym with seconds to spare. He turned to the nearest corner and dumped the flesh golem bones from his inventory, as they were the only thing that was larger than the size his inventory would shrink down too. He had no desire to have them burst from his chest.
As the last one rattled into a semi-stable stack, a System pane popped into view, not needing to be summoned by him this time around… for some reason.
Notice:
You are in a safe location.
You killed:
Zombie Shambler (Common), level 4 x 6
Zombie Shambler (Common), level 3 x 9
Zombie Shambler (Common), level 2 x 15
Zombie Shambler (Common), level 1 x 12
Flesh Golem of the Plague Guard (Uncommon), Level 12
Reward:
Experience adjusted for level and rarity disparities, along with quick-kill modifiers.
Alex did some incredibly quick math and found that he wasn't actually surprised that his class was ready to level after all of that.
He was a bit sad that his Race wasn't quite ready. It needed a bit more of a bump. He wasn't going to let his class level until his race was ready to do so, but the quest was about to finish so…
A ding resonated through the whole world as everyone seemed to freeze in place.
Apology Tutorial Notice:
Initial Quest timer complete.
Calculating rewards individually.
<Al Hart, Real - The Apocalypse, Earth?>
Al was in heaven as he crept up on another group of people. They had just survived a fight with a gang of little green creatures.
They were wounded, tired, and best of all, confident in their own safety in the moment.
He only had eight bullets and seven throwing knives, but there were only three people, two women and a man. They were armed with clubs of various kinds, though the smaller woman was looking at one of the knives that the little green things had been wielding.
He lined up his throw.
Knife first for a silent kill—or at least wound—to sow confusion before he took out the others with the gun.
He still couldn't believe that that cop had just let him take the weapon. He'd given it to him, 'to keep him safe if he wouldn't stay with the group.'
Al almost huffed in incredulity again. The man had looked rather surprised when Al had shot him thirty seconds later.
But he was letting his mind wander, and that wasn't wise with prey so close at hand.
He whipped his hand forward, grabbed another knife and threw it just after the first hit.
His throw had been good, and the blade buried itself in the shorter woman's neck, funneled in by her shoulder and jaw. Due to the angles, the others likely just heard an odd impact.
Even before the woman began falling, the second knife arrived, hitting the man in the chest, just to the left of his sternum.
I'm awesome! That's got to be cutting at his heart at the very least.
He picked the gun off the ground beside him, raising it and sighting on the final member of the trio.
Then, his plan hit a hitch.
The lines between the odd segments of the world that had been randomized pulsed, just as they had twice before.
No, not now! No, no, no! He squeezed the trigger, hoping to get the shot in before—
The world shifted.
There was no physical sensation of movement, but suddenly he was surrounded by entirely different terrain. In fact, the parking lot he'd been in the middle of had been further divided in this shuffle.
So, the segments aren't always the same, then…
It was an odd occurrence that had instantly made him think of defragmenting a hard-drive, even if he didn't know that was what was happening.
He'd seen several segments that were clearly not from Earth. He would have heard about a mountain composed out of amethyst, and a tree of seemingly ever burning blue fire definitely would have made the news.
But he was distracting himself.
He's seen his target jerk after his shot, but he hadn't verified the kill.
Worse, the man might have survived.
Al screamed a curse and kicked one of the parked cars.
After a long moment to breathe and calm himself, he sighed. There would be others.
No one else that'd he'd found had realized what he had. Not that it's been very long.
He'd also only seen four groups, so his sample set was rather miniscule.
Regardless, he pulled up the System Notice once more.
System Notice:
Congratulations!
Your planet has been Initiated into the System.
Individual Quest [Proof of Worth]:
The world as you knew it is over.
Without society, without laws, without the niceties, who will you choose to be?
Survive for 24 hrs.
Reward:
Tutorial Entrance
Specifics based upon actions both before initialization and until the timer runs out.
Survive:
23 hrs 00 min
And the notice he'd gotten from slamming his geology book down on an overly large ant.
Kill Notice:
You killed:
Giant Ant (Simple), Level 1
Reward:
Experience to be granted when the Tutorial begins.
System Note:
There will be no experience earned, nor penalties given, for any member of your own species killed during this phase of Initialization.
Two things had stood out to him instantly. First, 'during this phase.' That meant that killing other humans could eventually give experience, but that wasn't guaranteed. That's where the second thing came in 'specifics based upon actions both before initialization and until the timer runs out.'
He had never killed anyone before. So, if he wanted to be rewarded for that going forward, he had to fix the issue. Worse, this System might give greater weight to his twenty-six years of peacefully existing alongside other people than a few kills here and there.
After all, almost anyone was willing to kill in self-defense.
He wanted to make his own desires as clear to the System as possible.
He wanted experience for hunting other people more than he'd wanted anything in his entire life.
A smile pulled at the edges of his mouth. How could he go back to killing mere animals after the rush of killing other people?
He jerked, looking to his right. He'd heard movement that way, people's voices too. They sounded confused.
Perfect. This hunt might require blending in for a bit, if there were too many of them, but either way, a hunt was a hunt.
Let's get to it.