World Filter

“Wait, so your abilities are called skills? Mine are spells.” Mark said to Donny.

Daphne had suggested they go over what spells everyone had, to plan better for future fights. As it turned out, apparently both Donny and Daphne each had a skill.

Grace said she only had one spell, but Mark wasn't so sure about that.

Donny’s was called [Dash] allowing him to accelerate rapidly at the cost of Aura. While Daph demonstrated a skill called [Guard], it temporarily enhanced her defense greatly in exchange for Aura.

Coincidently they both got their skills during the combat with that Corrupted under the bridge.

Which made sense, Mark had wondered how Daphne was unharmed after that thing had fallen on them.

They had just returned from scouting and had broken down what was going on out there. Everyone chose to think things over and then give their answer in the morning.

Now it was time to test his spells first thing he did was begin to burn off the corruption he already had with [Corruption recovery] and with almost seventy Prana he could burn away a decent percentage he chose to remove about 5% and save the rest for emergencies.

Mark was just going over his spell list with them when one, in particular, caught his eye. This a perfect time.

“Right well. the last spell I got recently and I need some help testing it, any volunteers?” he asked the room.

Everyone looked at him, but no one answered.

“Why are you asking like that? What is it?” Grace finally responded.

Mark nodded.

“Remember how we spoke about the Corruption values? Well, I’m pretty sure Prana users can cleanse Corruption from people later on. However, I’ve come across a spell that should be able to do the same thing” he said.

Right away Grace looked both excited and weary.

“That's great news, why are you hesitating?” she asked.

Mark realized he was beating around the bush.

“Alright, full transparency, I got the spell in a strange way and there are risks. I can’t be sure it’ll do exactly as advertised.” Mark crossed his arms and straightened his back.

After what felt like an eternity Daphne spoke up.

“You got it after you bit that Zombie didn't you?” she held Mark's gaze steadily.

Mark had already decided not to lie.

“In a manner of speak, yes. It should function similarly, but it would just target the Corruption in you,”

He could have gone into detail, but he wanted to see their reactions, see who had faith in him. He was fairly certain he knew how Grace was going to react. If they all didn't know by now that he wouldn’t purposefully put them in harm's way, then that was on them.

“Absolutely not, none of us are going to-” Grace burst out.

“I’ll do it” Daphne interrupted Grace with a sense of confidence that looked great on her.

“Daph. No! You are not becoming some guinea pig” Grace tried again.

“I trust Mark not to hurt me, you should too. I’m doing this Grace” Daphne said as she turned away from her.

Grace’s eyes turned cruel.

“If he rips out your throat, don’t come crying to me.” she turned away and moved to one of the further corners. For a moment Donny was torn but decided to stay nearby.

Ethel had been watching their entire exchange choosing not to interfere. She hadn’t even asked any questions, simply remaining an observer.

Daphne turned to Mark and said

“Okay let's do this” Then leaning in she whispered,

“You don't have to bite me for this right?” She asked in a joking manner.

It was a little forced but Mark appreciated the attempt.

Smiling he reassured her

“Don't worry I’m pretty sure there will be no teeth involved”

He held out his hand to her.

Smiling nervously she took it.

Mark closed his eyes and activated [Draw Corruption]

Right away he could feel the Corruption in himself bubble up creating a suction force. Mark sent a [Prana Pulse] to see if he could tell what was going on during the process.

What he got was very small amounts of Corruption separating from Daphne. Slowly traveling up her arm and when it was about to cross the threshold of their hands Mark opened his eyes.

Small black veins traveled along her forearm and into Marks, they were so faint it was hard to even tell they were there. Mark felt it seeping into his body joining with his own Corruption, growing slightly as a result.

It was minor, like a drop in a bucket but he still noticed it.

They both let out a sigh - hers in relief, and his from exertion.

“All done, how do you feel?” he asked.

Daphne opened her status, or at least that's what Mark thought the distant stare was for. Refocusing she grinned

“Fine, I definitely felt something leaving and I’m at zero percent again” she smiled

“Right. Donny, Ethel do either of you want me to draw off your Corruption value(Cv)?” Mark was happy the gift from the Caretaker performed as advertised.

When Donny didn’t answer right away Ethel spoke up.

“Personally my Corruption is sitting at 0.0 right now but I was wondering if you could help Boe. His percentage is already at 1.19% If you could help him I’d be very grateful”

“Of course. You can see Boe’s Cv?”

Mark went over to pet Boe, beginning the process. Mark felt a big difference in the amount of corruption in Boe compared to Daph.

“Yes, I can see his status, he levels as I do. I also decide where to put his points,” Ethel said as Mark finished working on Boe. He even sent a [Prana pulse] to make sure Boe was in good health. He was.

“Wait how does that work, do you get exp points for his kills or something?” Mark asked, interested.

“Well, we haven't killed many, but I’ve found that for every two kills we both get a point,” Ethel said while scratching Boe behind the ear.

Mark wanted to ask more but he realized that she was already showing a great amount of trust just by telling him that.

“Right. Well, Donny?”

Donny looked hesitant. As if he wanted to but something or someone was holding him back.

“Aaa Thanks dude but for now I can handle it ” He nodded

Mark was disappointed but he wouldn't force his help on people. If Donny didn't want assistance then he just hoped he knew what he was doing.

“Right well I still have another spell to test tonight so I’ll be over there if anyone needs me”

Mark moved back to one of the corners he was exhausted from the transfers but something told him that he needed to be working on himself whenever he could get the chance. He was about to start messing with [Shape mana] when someone quietly cleared their throat next to him.

Mark turned back and saw Daphne standing there.

“Mind if I join you for a moment?”

“Sure” he tried to inject some energy into his voice.

She sat down and after a pause began.

“Listen, I wanted to thank you for what you just did, and even more so than that I wanted to right a wrong.”

Mark was confused, when had she wronged him?

“I never properly thanked you for saving my life on the boat. So, Mark thank you for healing me.”

Mark was a bit blindsided by the timing but he would be lying if he said that it wasn't welcome.

“Well, it was nothing really, so don't worry I’ll always jump in to help my friends.”

Daphne’s expression changed to a look of frustration.

“Why do you do that?” she asked sharply

Mark blinked, unable to keep up with the sudden change.

“You saved my life, if it was as bad as Grace told me then I'm only alive because of you, and yet you act as if what you did wasn't amazing. They told me you passed out after healing me, you could have hurt yourself. We didn't know how the system worked yet and there you were, using it without any self-preservation. What's worse is you seem more than willing to jump into danger again to help us, why?”

Mark had to wait a moment for his brain to catch up, Daphne had not spoken with this kind of passion the entire time he knew her. Yet now she was asking him why did what he did.

He knew the answer.

“Because it's who I want to be. I do this. Help you, because I won't be a bystander. I'm a healer Daph and if things continue this way eventually you’ll all out-scale me in raw killing potential, even with the extra stats.

That doesn't mean I feel weak or sorry for myself, just means I have to work harder.” he said with conviction.

“Mark you’re not getting this, you've already done a lot for this group. What's wrong with being just a healer and staying safe? The fact that you can't see your value is completely beyond me”

she sighed and continued.

“Okay, look I’m really grateful for all the healing and know that I’ll have you back out there. But just think about it some more, okay? I came here to thank you and I have. So… ima go ” She petered out near the end like the wind was taken from her sails. She moved away and sat near the center of the room.

Mark tried to come to grips with what she said but he really couldn't make head or tails of it. Did she think he wasn't taking enough credit for healing them or that he was taking too many risks?

When he found himself spinning too much, he decided to put it out of his mind for now and focus on things he could understand. Mainly magic.

Mark brought up the [Shape Mana] description and read through it once more.

Starting off small he put a single point of Mana into it and imagined a cube. A basketball-sized cube grew into being. First, he tried fixing it in place. It seemed to work but took a good deal of concentration. Smiling he pressed his hand up against it, imagining it becoming intangible. His wrist sunk right into it.

Nodding he started pumping more Mana into the construct. It started growing, stopping when he had encompassed himself entirely. He used about 10 Mana to completely cover himself in a 5-foot field.

By now he was drawing attention. The construct was semi-transparent but still gave off a light blue shimmer, easily showing the outline of his construct.

“Um, Donny can you help me test this thing, all you gotta do is hit me,” Mark asked.

Donny locked eyes with Grace and when she gave him a nod he came over.

“How hard,” he asked with a little too much mirth in his voice.

“Let's stress test this thing, hit it hard” Mark smiled as he warped it forward toward Donny so there wouldn’t be any injuries on his end. He also dumped another 10 Mana into it.

Donny flipped the ax around and drew back to swing. Bringing the back of the ax down with a huge amount of force behind it. The moment he made contact cracks spiderwebbed throughout the wall. Mark flinched as he felt the force transfer to his cube. But it held.

“Whew okay, and was that at full force?”

Donny nodded with a bit of a sour look on his face, he looked like he wanted to try again. Mark rapidly drew the construct back in. He got 2 Mana back.

“Well, shit that's expensive” he exclaimed.

“Donny, how much did you say your Aura was at?” Mark asked

“Just got my Aura to 30 I put a couple of stats in mana just to round myself out”

Mark was disappointed, with exactly equal attributes Mana lost out to Aura in a raw physical battle. It sort of made sense though.

He had used about 18 Mana in one go, if he were to guess it took about 3 Mana to grow and move the Cube as he had before Donny hit it. Therefore the raw amount of Mana used to block a full power attack from a 30 Aura user was 15 Mana. That was a significant investment, especially since it basically cost them nothing to attack again right away, and that’s if one wasn't factoring in any skills the Aura user might have.

Mark bit his lip.

They did some smaller tests and Mark found out the hard way that when his construct was forcefully broken it rebounded and gave him a massive jolt of pain.

“Okay gimme some time to recover my Mana I wanna try something else”

Nodding Donny went back to sit down beside Grace.

Mark thought back to one line from the spell description.

This spell can be altered by all other attributes.

Putting aside Resistance for now as he wasn't sure how the heck he was supposed to apply that or if it was already applied. He turned his sight towards Prana. For one he already knew it was life but it also represented protection and rejuvenation. If he could apply his Prana to the construct would it make them stronger, harder to break? Or would something else altogether happen?

Mark once more activated [Shape Mana] only this time he shaped it as a sphere. Using 10 more Mana. When it was created he tried pouring a single point of Mana and Prana at the same time. The light blue tinge of the construct rapidly started taking on a purple hue. Mark felt it moving toward the outer edges reinforcing the walls of the construct. Protecting the Mana. Immediately Mark noticed a significant change in the cost of maintaining the construct and its movement.

Now drawing off two sources the field grew rapidly and settled around Mark comfortably. The Mana and Prana were covering for each other's weaknesses.

While the Mana was rigid once set to a task, Prana was not. It flowed easily, changing and moving at a moment's notice, constantly evolving.

While the Mana provided the structure for Prana to exist outside of living beings.

If Mark had to describe it, it was like Mana was the steel beams, while Prana was the concrete around them.

The two paired so well together that Mark was at a loss for words. The system sold these laws separately, but Mark couldn't help but wonder what Aura would bring to the table. They fit together so perfectly that it was like pieces of a puzzle. For now, he put aside his frustration at never having one of those pieces.

“Alright Donny, everything you got!”

Stopping a good ways away, Donny got ready and used [Dash] straight at the dome. Mark’s eyes widened as he flashed the ax down overhead with the force of gravity behind it. Mark immediately pumped resources into the construct bringing it up to 25 Mana and 15 Prana bracing himself.

The sound of steel hitting glass rang out. Donny slammed into the field as he couldn't correct his trajectory after putting all his force behind it.

Mark gritted his teeth expecting the pain from his construct shattering to stab at his brain. It never came. Upon closer inspection, the dome was completely intact. Not a crack in sight. Shocked Mark rapidly withdrew the construct and smiled like a madman when he saw what he got back.

25 Mana and 14 Prana.