World Filter

Mark took a steadying breath as he looked out over their people. Once they had gotten over just how bad the situation was, they had moved into problem-solving mode.

Nathan had decided their best bet would be to send out a group of scouts. Their information-gathering skills could only get them so much. So a small team was formed. From their faction, Jonathan and Andy had volunteered because of their speed.

A couple of people from the Loyalist and the Guild went, making their party no bigger than six members.

Mark remained behind to maintain the shield, with Sam assisting him while running her own tests.
Their group had left about half an hour ago, and Mark was beginning to worry.
He'd used [Bestowal] to shield the scouts in a small personal construct, but it wouldn't last forever—they needed to return soon.

Around him, activity continued. Gibby was organizing both their fighters and the tenders. Boe had gone off sniffing the area, only to return and flop down beside where Mark and Sam were working.
Shelby had taken to prayer—they were, after all, at the gravesite of a spire.
The Loyalists had formed a defensive line and waited patiently. Even the Guild was handing out food and blankets, as the chill had crept in without the sun.

All in all, everyone was doing what they could to prepare while they waited for the scout's return. Mark, on the other hand, was keeping their energy sealed within his construct while doing his best to follow Jonathan and Andy through the link he'd established.

They had climbed up the walls of the ravine to get a better look at what was up there, but when they had, Mark realized why nothing had found them yet.

They hauled themselves out of the hole and into a world choked in ash. Grey desert stretched to the horizon in every direction—lifeless, dry, and still. Not a blade of grass, not a whisper of green. Even the salt flats were blackened, cracked like burned skin underfoot. Overhead, clouds the color of bruises smothered the sky, letting through only a weak, sickly light that coated the land in pallor. Still, they had their heading. The map told them exactly where to go, but worryingly, far off in the distance, they could make out what looked like tall mountain ranges. However, even with their Aura users' enhanced senses, it was still too far to make out what dangers might lurk there.

The scouting team had decided to conduct a perimeter check and then return. As they did so, Mark found himself turning his thoughts back to his surroundings.

Sam seemed to be in mediation, but not so deep that she couldn't watch through the link. She wanted to find out what high concentrations of Corruption did to the surrounding energies on a macro scale. Or at least that's what she told him. For now, since he had nothing to do but hurry up and wait, he decided to check his prompts.

The experience he'd gotten wasn't much of late, but his stats were more interesting. Or to be exact, it was the large number of max-level skills he needed to address.

The fact that [Draw Corruption] had reached max level was interesting but not unsurprising. Mark had been using it extensively for weeks. The confusing part was that it was highlighted in red. To his surprise, a prompt popped up when he focused on it.

Mark would have accepted that prompt, but then a gold prompt followed shortly after.

Mark was in meditation, so he didn't show any outward reaction, but the shock was enough that it leaked through the link to Jon and Sam.

It was clear the Caretaker wanted him to use the higher-order spell fusion ticket on [Draw Corruption], but to what end?

Right now, he had more spells wanting to advance than ever before, but he only had one ticket.

Fusing something with [Draw Corruption] would limit his choices severely. For example, if he fused [Regenerate] and [Cleansing surge], he might be able to get something that would heal and cleanse the recipient at the same time. But if the Caretaker went so far as to send him a direct message, Mark wasn't about to discount that.

As of yet, it had not led them astray.

Interestingly, as far as he could tell, the ticket did not need to fuse only max-level spells. He could mix just about any two spells without restriction.

That gave Mark pause. What did they need right now? There were any number of great spell combinations, but if he was going to use the ticket, he needed to make sure it was with an intention in mind.

For example, what would happen if he fused [Draw Corruption] and [Bestowal]? Could he give others Corruption? What would be the point of that? There was already enough of the stuff to go around.

Mark's next thought was [Force bolt], so that he could shoot Corruption like Corrupted humans did. But again, what purpose did that serve? It might even be a detriment, making the spell unusable.

Every combination that Mark could come up with felt like it was a monkey's paw situation. Mixing corruption with anything had the tendency to go wrong.

Putting that thought aside, Mark opened his eyes to glance around at the surrounding people.

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What did they need right now?

Mark scanned the weary faces around him, some openly miserable, others clinging to a thread of hope—and reached a difficult conclusion.

Of the fifty-nine souls who had made it this far, trouble was inevitable.
For now, with everyone under his immediate influence, Mark could suppress the Corruption seeping into them. But once they stepped into the black zone, who knew what would happen.
He would need to rest, eat, maybe even fight—and he couldn't be everywhere at once, no matter how hard he tried.

The sheer concentration of Corruption in the air made the underground dungeons they'd survived look tame by comparison.
There was no way he could shield everyone—not with a group this large.

In a smaller team, maybe he could have managed. But with so many, some would inevitably reach their Cv limits.
Red zones could push someone to their cap in under an hour. Mark shuddered to imagine what the black zone would do to a person.

With that in mind, he knew what he needed.

The problem was accomplishing this. As he saw it, there were only two spells that might work as intended. The first was obvious, [Corruption recovery]. It should do exactly what it says on the box. Hopefully, it would make him more resistant to the incoming Corruption. Maybe then he could help more people. The problem was just how much more it would offer him. If it was too little of an improvement, then he'd have wasted his only ticket.

The second option was more drastic, but it could be far more effective if things went as Mark predicted, that being [Animated mind]. This spell allowed Mark to calculate and store resources beyond his natural limits. So if it could do the same for Corruption, then even if he drew too much, he would be able to store it somewhere. Of course, Mark knew that this one was a gamble. Who knew what would happen if he gave a mass of Corruption a mind of its own?

Mark ummed and erred, but eventually he decided he didn't want to make this decision on his own. So, turning towards them in the link Mark sent, the decision to Sam and Jonathan.

To his surprise, both Sam and, to a lesser extent, Jonathan had been watching him, so their answers came shortly.

'The one option is safe, but boring. The other is riskier, but it has the potential to be stronger, right? I think you already know which one I'd pick.' Jonathan sent encouragement through the link

Mark felt Sam shake her head at Jon, but he didn't miss her grin.

'I'm just happy you thought to ask us. Mark, I trust you to make whatever decision you think is best, but remember I'm right here beside you if you're thinking of making a stupid one.

Mark snorted, unsure if that last part was a threat or her cheering him on.

He decided on the latter. Sighing, Mark made his decision and activated his ticket, before he could back out.

Without hesitation, he slotted [Draw Corruption] and [Animated Mind]. Whatever happened, happened.

Only, Mark didn't expect two pillars of light to suddenly descend around him. They immediately pressed against the inside of his construct as they lifted towards the sky. Rapidly rotating around Mark. One was a deep gold, while the other fluctuated between purple and black. Then the system descended, and Mark felt the familiar presence rest over his shoulders like a mantle.

He felt it before whenever it improved or evolved his magic's

Only this time, there was something more.

Usually, the system had no particular personality; it acted like a computer program faithfully doing its job, but now there was the barest of feelings coming through.

It felt… annoyed.

At what Mark wasn't sure. But he'd bet it had something to do with the current fusion targets. Or maybe it was the use of the ticket; he had no idea.

But he didn't imagine he'd get an answer because seconds ticked by as Mark felt thousands of connections rushing by his head. He was glad he was just an observer because watching alone made him dizzy. Connections were made and shattered faster than Mark could calculate as the two spells were reshaped to fit one another piece by piece. The column of black light didn't make it easy either, as it fought the system with everything it had. But it was nothing more than a spell in front of an otherworldly intelligence as eventually its resistance broke and the two columns fused into a smaller ball of undulating light.

Black and gold churned through the sphere like the turbulent winds of a gas planet.

Then it shot toward his temple, and Mark had to clench his jaw at the sudden influx of information. The system was never gentle, but this felt a little spiteful as the spell drove itself into his brain like a spike. Shooting down his spine and rushing towards his mutated core.

Mark grunted as a throbbing pain exploded behind his eyes. He wanted to curse the damned system, but it was already fading from his side, and prompts made themselves known.

Mark froze as he read the spell's name. By the looks of it system had put some thought into the name of this spell. However, it was the first line of the spell's description that confused Mark. He'd never seen a description like this one before. It seemed almost personal, targeted at him.

"Foolish…?" Mark snorted before another prompt appeared.

Mark pursed his lips. He was happy with the current spell he'd gotten and couldn't wait to test it out, but he couldn't help worrying.

That last line was rather ominous.

As far as he could tell, the Caretaker had wanted him to avoid the system's attention, so why was it having him do this now?

The reply came moments later, marking his second golden message that day.

Mark bit the inside of his cheek.

"Are you going to explain any of this to me then?" Mark muttered. He waited for some kind of response, but when he got nothing, he turned mentally back to Sam and Jon. Mark could feel that Jonathan was on his way back towards them, but his attention was on something else. It was Sam's voice that came to the forefront of his mind.

'I don't know what's going on, but I think you should do what he recommended.'

Mark hummed, but that was all he needed to hear.

The moment he invoked commendation, an empty screen appeared.

What the hell was this? A blank cheque? Should he use this here? Could he get some answers with this instead? Could he send them home? All of these questions rushed through his mind before he cursed and repeated what the Caretaker had told him to.

Right now, they barely knew anything that was going on within the system. As far as Mark was concerned, the longer they remained hidden, the better.

The system confirmed the action with a soft chime as the window vanished. Mark was just debating whether to turn his attention to managing his max-level skills when Jonathan's voice surged through the link.

'Guys, we need firepower! Get everyone ready to defend!'

Mark and Sam were on their feet instantly. If Jon wasn't handling it alone, then it was serious.

"Everyone, get ready! Enemies incoming!" Sam called, her gaze snapping to the top of the ravine.

Dozens of heads turned as Andy and four others vaulted over the edge. They bounced off the opposite cliff face mid-fall, using the momentum to crash-land inside Mark's construct. Andy, somehow still graceful despite the chaos, landed beside him in a crouch.

"How many?" Mark shouted, shoving all one hundred free attribute points into Mana. His total surged to 446.

Andy's chest heaved, his Aura shimmering wildly across his skin. He looked to Mark, then Sam, and rasped out.

"Just one!"

Mark's pupils shrank.

The world darkened.

What little light filtered from above vanished as an enormous shadow blotted it out. From where they stood, they could only make out a monstrous maw, its teeth glinting like ivory spears, each one the size of a man. A low, thrumming roar echoed down the ravine, shaking loose bits of gravel and dust.

Behind that gaping mouth, a nightmare took shape: a mountain of gaunt, grey flesh, draped in cracked leather skin, with muscles that rippled like ropes under its hide. It moved with terrifying speed for something its size.

And in front of it—barely visible against the oppressive backdrop—was Jonathan, darting through the air, a flicker of motion desperately outrunning the kind of beast that could swallow a five-story building whole.