Weapons of Mass Destruction

I rest against one of the huge pillars and apply pressure with my hand on the wound on my stomach with my hand in an effort to keep my organs where they belong. There aren’t any more healing marks that I can activate, so I focus on cycling thermal energy through my body.

One day, I will finally find the person who caused my healing passive to be left behind at only mid epic grade.

The most annoying part is that I can't even use proper armor at the moment or try to weave my mana due to the spike in my mana and the fact that my mid-arcane passive has yet to apply. I think I might have been warned about my absurdly high mana because of situations like this. Maybe all those people knew what they were talking about.

"Healing?" Lily asks, moving closer.

"No need."

She takes a moment to confirm, then rushes off to heal the others, even reattaching a leg that Sophie lost during one of the fights.

Gareth's wide-area healing aura helps me enough for my passive to finish the rest. Plus, I let some of that pain reach me. It helps me to focus and serves an important function as a reminder.

I want my mind and my body to feel what will happen should I lose control, which could happen at any time. I was fortunate enough to live through it this time. For the moment, most of my constructs are working properly. Well, "properly" might be too strong a word, but at least I’ve gotten them patched up.

My increased mana also causes fewer problems now, moving such big amounts of it feels somewhat familiar. There were always situations where I had a lot of mana flowing through my body or was using a lot of it at once.

This is just an extension of that, I’m just having to deal with it on a constant basis. My mind isn't the problem, it’s this body of mine, it’s a weakness I know about and have traded in for all these things I can do that others cannot.

(You might want to stop whatever you’re doing there, Nat. Your mana affects surrounding mana too much.) Sophie says, sending a message through our link.

(What do you mean?)

(Your mana feels like it's taking control of the mana around you, even the ambient one. I’ve been feeling it for the past hour, and it’s only getting stronger over time. I think Leticia can feel it, too, she’s just not letting it show.)

(I’ll check on it, thanks.)

With that, I take a moment to focus on what my passive’s been doing until now, which I would have done before had I not had other problems to deal with, and it would seem that the passive involves more of a gradual application. Even now, I feel the pain serving as proof of that. As Sophie said, and as the description shows, it seems to be helping me impose a strange sort of control over the surrounding environment. It's like a weird mix of [Eclipse], [Mana Domain], and my black mana. And while each of the new effects is much weaker than their active counterparts, it has the same sort of feel to it.

It’s Something I’ll need to play with when I have some free time, along with the active skill I still haven't had the opportunity to use so far.

Following Sophie’s recommendation, I turn off my passive, knowing that I’ll just have to find a more fitting time to explore its effects. With it turned off, the pain lessens, though it never truly fades as the skill applies.

Then we have to move again as Tess issues another warning, catching sight of the monsters before even Luna can sense them.

Two days.

That's how long it takes me to fully adapt to the changes and for the pain to fade. It seems like this passive is stronger than my other mid-arcane skills, plenty stronger if the pain is anything to go by.

Tess's scouting and Lily's powerful healing are probably the only reasons no one died.

I think every one of us has finally come to realize just how unprepared we were when we entered the zone between the 1st and 2nd safe zones. Confident after reaching the 1st safe zone with so much ease. Especially so after killing the fish. We thought we had all the information we needed and the numbers to pass through without challenge.

The entire time, we haven't seen a single lurker; they’ve all been skeletal monsters. Extremely durable, possessed of a multitude of skills and mana, or whatever it is the creature’s been using to slow our healing and leave such lasting wounds. Their attacks cause powerful explosions. Powerful at range, engaging in concentrated attacks, launching powerful bombardments, and possessed of an extreme sort of durability and sharp bones to act as claws at close range. ꞦΆ₦ỒＢÈṦ

I'm sure the next time I come through, it’ll only get that much easier, especially knowing what to expect after getting used to my powers, but just for now, I’m perfectly happy to enter the safe zone with others who think the same.

Lily and Gareth are the most exhausted out of all of us. We are happy, but nobody’s willing to let their guard down.

The second safe zone we’ve reached is called the Sphere and probably accounts for one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. The overall shape is that of... well... a perfect sphere made out of black stone with an amazingly smooth surface.

The area surrounding The Sphere is incredibly striking, made even more so by its sheer size. The Sphere itself towers as high as one of Earth’s tallest skyscrapers, and its spherical shape gives it a footprint just as wide.

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Looking at it, it almost seems like one could just send it rolling with a push, and yet here it stands, unmoving. Even though it doesn't manage to reach the ceiling and still can’t compare to the height of the stone pillars bridging the ground and ceiling, it's huge.

Tunnels have been drilled throughout, leading to the safe zone within its hollow out core, with buildings built out from the walls. At the exact center, a smaller sphere of water hangs, suspended in the air despite being the size of an apartment building. Red, white, and orange lights move through the sphere like sparks, emitting a gentle glow to be dispersed by the water.

The first thing I notice are the attendees sitting on the small terraces of houses built into the walls, watching the sphere and the light inside of it. It doesn't seem just like normal watching; it's more akin to observing studying as if they are trying to learn something from it.

Reaching this place finally solves the mystery of Tacita’s disappearance. She sits on one of the benches that are below the sphere and watches it with everyone else, her head turned upwards. As she notices us, she stops and stands up, just a few quick steps, taking her near, totally not caring about Jean, who tenses up, ready to fight.

Tacita passes by him and reaches Lily, who’s currently resting weakly against Tess. After looking at her curiously for a moment, she shakes her head. She makes a circling gesture next to her temple with a finger and miming a deep sigh.

And just like that, she’s gone again.

We each register our "spawn" point here and head to one of the empty houses. With this, our expedition ends, and there should only be a few hours left on each of our tokens.

Gareth starts talking first. Even with his armor damaged and his silver crown gone, he continues to smile, full of optimism, "I'm sure we will do better next time! I can count on you, right, Miss Leticia?"

Leticia nods, "Only if you do a better job healing the next time, as you promised. We can't just have poor Grumpy handle it all."

Lily waves it off, "It's fine, I just need a bit of rest. My fights don’t usually last this long."

From a terminator like her, it sounds like more of a threat than an explanation.

"I think Sset did an amazing job as well. Without her, we would probably have lost someone along the way," Gareth continues as the whole pack of extroverts seems to decide it's time to compliment everyone now that we’re finally safe.

"Everyone did their own part. Sur,e there were some hiccups along the way, but our composition was good, and we were quick to adapt," Tess defends.

"Everyone other than Noname, that asshole just kept luring monsters to us with his mana," that little shit Spacewolf complains.

However, I immediately feel more comfortable once he’s disrupted the flowery atmosphere the others seemed bent on creating.

"With all your whining, I'm starting to think 'Spacepuppy' suits you better."

"You... what?"

"Spacewhimper."

"You..."

"Spacewolf? Is that your gamer tag or your furry phase?"

"Noname."

"Did you name yourself Spacewolf because 'Crybaby Cosmo-Pup' was taken?"

"You asshole. Listen here… I’ll..."

"Yes, I have been preparing them the whole time we were fighting, you little shit."

"Did you pick Noname because 'No-Talent' was already taken?"

"Yes."

The answer makes him hesitate for a moment, just long enough for Leticia to move closer and drag him into a hug. Which makes him blush as he tries to push her away while Luna comes to a stop in front of me, giving me a judging look in the meantime.

I avert my eyes and recline in my mana-block chair while letting them have fun, theorize, and plan for the future. Tess has always been good at those kinds of things, so I just let her handle it.

Gradually, the time approaches for everyone to return to their respective floors. Plans are made, promises exchanged, and pleasantries shared. And well wishes echo their way through the group, carried by the relief of a somewhat successful end to the expedition. The promise of the shards from the fish likely serving to lighten the mood further.

After the goodbyes, people begin to leave, one by one.

Luna and Leticia disappear first, followed by Gareth as if they had used their Stay Tokens to arrive before the rest of us.

Then Lily, Sophie, and Tess disappear as well.

But I stay behind, having just used a one-day stay token to extend the duration of my stay.

Straightening from my leaned-back position, I return the chair to its original shape, fixing my eyes on Jean.

He quickly picks up on it. I wouldn’t call him the smartest, but there are definitely times when he can be surprisingly quick to catch on. So once Lucien disappears, Jean is still there, expending a Stay Token much the same as I did.

Neither of us says a word as we finish healing our wounds with our regeneration and collect our strength.

When the time feels right, I stand up and head out, Jean following behind. We pass under the water sphere, pass through the tunnels leading to the safe zone, and make our exit, jumping down to the grassy surface. After another minute of walking, I stop and turn to him.

"I would declare a challenge and wager, but you rejected the Candidate title."

"My word carries more weight than anything that could be enforced by the outcome of a challenge," Jean declares.

And I trust him.

"Good, then, if you defeat me in the future, I won't stop you when you try to kill her."

That makes him laugh, but at the same time, he is stretching, warming up his body, "Some friend you are. Are you saying you would just stand there and watch?"

"Does it matter? I'm not going to lose," I tell him.

He nods seriously, "Then one of us will have to die."

"Maybe," I bring his attention to me. "If I win, you can't go behind me to attack anyone in my group. But I will be happy to face you anytime you want. It doesn’t matter if you decide to wake me up at midnight or if you challenge me at a moment when I'm missing half of my body. You’ll still need to defeat me to get to them."

He pauses for a moment, then shakes his head with a hint of curiosity in his expression. "You really mean it, don’t you?"

"Yes. Because you will never beat me, and if you’re not careful, you will die."

I let my mana flow through my body, the air around me seeming to hum with tension. "I will crush your Pride," I say, my voice calm but deadly. "I will fuck you up."

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