World Filter

Two figures climbed up the side of a small hill leading down into a culvert. The channel carried excess rainwater down southward. The two had emerged from the dark hole in the ground and snuck their way up and across a road.

“Come on Boe let's get somewhere warm,” Mark said letting out a throaty cough.

They were currently standing outside a hardware store. Surprisingly the floor-to-ceiling windows were still intact. Though they didn't offer much in the way of protection, he would still be able to see if anything was approaching which was almost as good for what he needed to do next.

Mark checked and found the door locked, looking around he couldn't see any Corrupted, but that wouldn’t last.

Entering here would definitely call attention to them.

So stalking around back he found a backdoor. Seeing this one wasn't directly on the street or made of glass he opened it with two quick bolts.

Closing the door behind them, the cold of the streets was replaced with the smell of varnished wood.

Moving deeper into the store Mark began his checks to make sure there was nothing hiding.

When he couldn't find any lurking dangers he sat down behind a display that gave him line of sight of the road and took out his phone. He wasn't sure where they were at this point and he needed to find out.

Looking at the map he could see he was actually closer to his goal than he first expected. The problem was he was way more east than he’d like to be. He searched for local landmarks and found another church along with a very large graveyard.

The thing was, Graveyards were not usually very populated so while it was off course it may be a good place to hide out if his plan here didn't work.

He was about to put away his phone when he remembered his post. Opening it he found it was somehow remaining on the top post list. Checking to see what was going on he saw his thread had been hijacked. Although in this case in a good way. The post led to a discussion that described how to get different spells.

The first user thanked Mark and copied him by putting up a spell called [Looming fire] Which created fire around the user and allowed them to shoot it forward whenever they wanted. It was a more powerful version of [Fire bolt], although probably more Mana intensive. The post directly under that was a user thanking both of them and posting a spell called [telekinnetic push].

In a similar fashion, the thread continued with about two dozen new spells, each one giving a description and the intent required to accomplish it.

Mark felt good that people were choosing to share information.

So using his rights as the original poster he created a sub-post that he called “Spellbook” and moved the thread under it, this would get the post more foot traffic and allow people to find the chat history about spell theory.

He Favorited the spells for later when he had more time to check them out and upvoted the users that posted them.

That done, he also created a very in-depth thread about how to acquire the skill [Meditation], going into as much detail as possible. He also listed all the benefits and drawbacks he could think of.

From what he could see there were no new updates from the government, but he did post a description of the creature and situation down in those pipes on their main page.

Whether they chose to believe him or not wasn't his problem.

Closing his phone for now he decided it was time to see if his idea worked.

“Boe you're on guard duty, if you do a good job there's another treat in it for you,” he said resting up against the wall. His whole body ached and sweat had collected on his brow.

Wiping it away closed his eyes, sinking into his [Meditation] skill. Using it as a way to calm his mind and gather some energy at the same time.

When he was ready he started trying to sense all the energy around himself. Mana screamed the loudest. Blocking it out he searched for all the others too.

It was slow at first but gradually he started to notice the fine gentle pulse of Prana on the Mana flow.

Something else too. It didn't take long to realize it was almost as prevalent as Mana, only with a different purpose. It felt righteous and strong taking form from beliefs. Only helping those, who help themselves.

It was Aura.

If Mana was free and unrestrained, and Prana was dutiful and nurturing. Then this energy was watchful and righteous.

Slowly Mark started to realize that there were always all three in the air, in the environment. Gathering in people, being drawn from the world.

He had an affinity with Prana and to a lesser extent Mana. So as such they gathered in him. His cores drew the energies from the room and stored them.

Aura seemed to completely ignore him altogether. Mark didn't have the well of energy to draw it to him.

One thing was certain, each of the three offered something to the world and had an aspect of reality it mainly resided in.

For Mana it was the environment, For Prana, it was living beings. Mark struggled to place Aura as he could barely even feel it.

But if he had to guess it was probably something along the lines of action or drive. That didn't feel right but it wasn't important right now.

What was, was finding a way to stop his energy from leaking out into the world.

Moving to his skin he tried to differentiate his energies from the rooms.

After a moment he could see it dispersing into the area. His energies floated up as if hot air from a flame. Disturbing the natural flow of the room.

One thing he noticed was that walls or glass did not stop this energy, it just kept moving as if unobstructed.

Right so, how to stop it from leaving?

Mark tried to pull all the energy at his skin back. He felt his [Passive Regeneration] turn off.

Frowning he tried again, this time he thought about both energies separately.

Concentrating he pulled them in deeper forming a wall made of his will. Not allowing any to escape.

The energy surrounding Mark became thinner and thinner until almost nothing came off him.

He’d done it, but right away he could feel a problem.

He wasn’t giving off any Mana or Prana. However, he could feel he wasn't absorbing any either. Meaning he wouldn't be able to regen any resources while he kept this up.

Not to mention the moment he used a spell he’d have to drop this.

It felt wrong too. Kind of like when one held their breath. The thing was, even if couldn't regen anything like this it didn't matter. He just needed to hold til tomorrow. He'd worked it out and if he could hold this till 11 AM the mark would expire.

Mark decided on a plan moving forward. He couldn't stay here because his energy had already seeped into the surroundings so the best bet was to gather up as much Prana as possible and then find a spot to hunker down.

He was sitting at around 81 Prana and full Mana. It would take him just over two hours to get to full Prana even with [Meditation].

Mark released his will with a sigh. Allowing the energies back in.

Just before he sunk fully into his skill he brought up his prompts

2 x Corrupted humanoid cleansed(2 + Sector reward: x4)[8]

7 x Corrupted Ghasts cleansed(14 + Sector reward: x4)[56]

1 x Corrupted Supplicant cleansed(1 + Sector reward: x4)[4]

17 System Points awarded

169/169

Level up!

+2 Prana, +2 Resistance

Spell Acquired: Cleansing surge

Through the surging tides of Prana, the user can remove persistent mental or physical effects that inhibit the receiver.

This spell can only affect living beings.

Congratulations [Shape Mana(Force)] has improved.

Congratulations [Draw Corruption] has improved.

Seeing his level up he put his points in and then took a look at his status. He put 1 in Resistance. 5 in Mana and 4 in Prana.

Name: Mark Young (22 - M)

Level: 14

Next level: 29/196

Stats:

Resistance

Aura

Mana

Prana

203 (+2, +2, +1) [+145]

0

63 (+10, +5)

137 (+8, +2, +4) [+25]

Unspent stat points - 0

Corruption value: 37.55%

System Points: 169.8

Skills: Meditation

Spells:

Passive Regeneration(Self)[3], Force bolt[6], Prana Pulse[2], Regenerate[4], Draw Corruption[5], Corruption recovery[3], Shape Mana(Force)[5], Invigorate[1], Cleansing surge[1].

World inventory. Marketplace. Trade

The improvements were welcome. He did a quick test using only his Mana and found his [Shape Mana] spell was costing slightly less, moving slightly better, and even the overall strength had improved.

If he had to guess it was another 10% improvement.

The fact that his [Draw Corruption] had gone up so rapidly was both interesting and useless. He didn't quite know what would improve but testing it right now was out of the question.

His whole body felt like it had gone through the wringer and he knew it was the corruption's fault. Even now he could feel it churning around inside him. As soon as he could he was going to get rid of it.

As he relaxed he let his [Meditation] skill kick in, but this time he tried to remain as conscious of the outside world as possible.

It was because of this he noticed something that felt different about the flow of Prana. He was regenerating faster than he was used to.

Coming out of the skill he did some tests on his Prana regen once more and found he was getting 1 Prana every four minutes down from five. It was only a single minute but that was already a 20% increase in his base regen.

If he used [Mediate] he was regening 1 Prana every 2 minutes for a total of 30 every hour.

Mark was ecstatic, but he wondered what changed. After some thinking the only thing he could come up with was his recent milestone of 100 Prana.

He had always wondered if having more in an attribute would give a user more regen. And right now it seemed to be the most plausible theory he had.

Choosing not to waste any more time he brought his full concentration to [Meditation] and the world faded, just the flow of Prana moving to his chest remained.

Mark felt himself awakening to the sounds of Boe’s low warning growl.

Mark's eyes snapped open, he was at 126 Prana.

Source: Mediation (+1 Prana, +2 exp points)

Which meant it had taken an hour and a half for them to track him down.

The intervals between them finding him were getting shorter.

Mark put the thought out of his head, trying to attribute it to luck.

Bringing his will forward he began to create a wall at the threshold of his skin. Keeping everything in and out.

Outside he saw three Ordinators wandering around. Not too many yet, but they were gathering. Mark was about to exit the way he came when he heard the backdoor protesting. Groans and bodies slamming up against it.

Right, new plan.

Mark moved to the front windows. Drawing his Glock he fired straight through the pane of glass. The shot rang out but was contained by the building. The glass however exploded outward into the streets in a shower of sound a broken shards.

Mark and Boe moved out into the open street

Right away the Ordinators turned to engage but this time the normal corrupted seemed slow to react.

Mark noticed this as he took aim at the ordinators. Firing two went down but one of them off center hitting the creature in the neck. He fired again and got the Ordinator this time.

Mark saw his chance to hightail it so he did. As he broke away from them he noticed only the nearest ones were following him with any real energy.

It was working.

He ran for an open alleyway

He was home free.

Then he heard someone shouting from above.

“Yo! Wait up!”