Harmless Human Sacrifice - 5 (Patreon)

[Name: Markus Brown]

[Class: Otherworlder (Earth) (Tier: Novice 8)]

[Health: 253/340]

[Mana: 832/430]

[Strength: 48 (+30)]

[Agility: 42 (+30)]

[Arcana: 6]

[Constitution: 49 (+30)]

[Spirit: 17]

[???: 0]

Markus’ stomach growled as he took in the different rows of stats and their values, remembering the fact that those increases by the physical stats were temporary. That meant he had between 6 and 19 in everything, with his lowest stat being Arcana by far, and Constitution being his highest at 19. And those were considered low…

Then there was the stat he didn’t even have the name of. It was greyed out, and he was pretty sure he couldn’t rank it up even if he tried right now.

He had 44 points. If he spread them evenly, he could raise everything by 9 each, or close enough. Markus didn’t think that was the play here. 9 points might be a drop in the bucket, for all he knew.

Putting aside that concern for a moment, Markus swept through the rest of his notifications to see if he could glean any more information. He’d already basically made his mind up, but he wanted to be sure on his plan of action. What he found was a mixture of surprising and disconcerting…

[D Grade Cryo Core Devoured! Awarding stats based on creature’s primary traits:]

[+2 Constitution!]

[+2 Arcana!]

[Abominable Core absorbed. Core absorption has increased your mana capacity from 390 to 430. Would you like to affix this core? Slots: 0/4.]

He had no idea what affixing might do. The system didn’t seem to have any information available on it, either. His choices were doing it or pressing no. If he pressed no, he might not get another chance to do this, and the advantage it gave him could be invaluable. 

Markus steeled himself and pressed accept. 

[Basic Frost Resistance gained. Freeze I, and Freeze II will have a reduced effect on you.]

[Frost Mana Generation learned. Your body will now generate G Grade Frost Mana at half the rate of your usual mana generation.]

[Core slot 1 of 4 is in use.] 

[Body is now generating 30 (F Grade) Spirit Mana and 10 (G Grade) Frost Mana per hour. Generation increased by up to 400% based on missing mana, as per your inborn trait.]

Okay… some good, some bad.

There was a lot to sift through here, but the long and short of it seemed to be that Markus had managed to both increase his mana capacity and his mana generation by some margin, and was now beginning to generate his own Frost Mana. That was all well and good if it wasn’t for the fact that he was still way over capacity right now, and generating even more mana was hardly a great trade-off for the slight increase in his maximum, considering he needed to do something about his poisoning.

Said poisoning could graduate into the more grim sounding Mana Toxicosis at any given point, and if he wanted to prevent that, he needed to first distribute his points in a way that would allow him to increase his mana capacity, and then find a way to suitably get rid of the excess.

His stomach continued to complain as he stared out at the cheese he’d been left. He felt so weak right now, even with his heightened stats, a clear symptom of the poisoning he was currently enduring. That ‘persistent vitality drain’ seemed to be affecting his health too. It was clearly something that needed dealing with sooner than later.

My non-physical stats are surely the ones that affect my mana most…

That meant anything without a +30 on it was likely what he needed to invest points into. He looked for a description on both Arcana and Spirit, reading through the system prompts one after the other.

[Arcana: Affects your proficiency with and understanding of magical items, properties, statuses, and general mysticism. Points allow you to draw more strength from magic and increase the potency of spells and skills you’re proficient in, as well as giving you resistance to magical status effects and unlocking the secrets of spellcraft and forging at certain breakpoints.]

[Spirit: Increases your Mana Generation and Mana Capacity. Increases your mental resilience, allowing you to stave off hunger and tiredness for longer periods and gain increased benefits from skill and experience Growth. Each 10 points in Spirit gives you a free point in Arcana or Constitution upon level up.]

Can’t increase the size of your pool without buffing your generation, huh? Awkward.

His mana generation already sounded high. He checked the other three quickly just to see if anything else could give him a higher mana capacity, but the closest he could find was Constitution offering him a ‘minor increase’ for each five points invested. It seemed your spirit was meant to tie in with your mana needs more or less linearly, but didn’t account for the extra Mana Generation an inborn trait like his could bring about.

Speaking of which, Markus still hadn’t read his inborn trait properly. It was about time he did.

[Mana Manipulation 1: Subtype ??? (Grade F-SSS)]

[Mana Manipulation increases the body’s capacity to store mana over its maximum capacity of 100%, capping itself at ?????%.]

[Mana Manipulation allows the body’s mana to be drawn out and commanded to ??? and activate compound skills as well as access a unique skill tree based upon ???.]

[Mana Manipulation massively increases natural Mana Generation based on missing mana, and allows small portions of mana to be absorbed from ambient magic, mitigating attacks and passively rejuvenating the user.]

That explained a lot. Explained exactly why Spirit bolstered your Mana Generation as well as your capacity. Most people couldn’t go over 100%. Most people didn’t have a passive constantly hastening their regeneration. Most people didn’t have to constantly worry about mana poisoning, because they’d never end up in the danger zone.

That said, Markus didn’t have a lot of options for dealing with this. He stuck just over half of his points into Spirit, bringing it to an even 40, then put 11 points in Constitution, upping it to 30, and put the remaining 10 into Agility. He tested the mana thresholds as he did so. He wanted to make sure he wouldn’t finish off still over his 100% threshold, but 23 points in spirit and 10 in Constitution seemed to more than do it, giving him 10 points spare.

He debated sticking the remaining 10 points in Con or Spirit, but the Agility seemed too necessary right now. A second taken to breathe had almost gotten him killed. He needed to be able to react faster.

Still, he hoped the Con boost would do its job properly. The way Markus saw it, if he could tank an attack or two, he’d be way more effective at dishing strikes back out with the mana he’d absorbed. If he could figure out the best way to use it, that might be a decent strategy, but points in agility helped him feel a tad more secure just in case. He’d been Overcharged for half his fight with the bulleater, and even then the thing had felt way too fast for him.

[Mana: 837/990. Generation at 130%.]

[Mana poisoning II has reduced to Mana Poisoning I. Duration remaining: 4 hours.]

Great… At least the stamina drain seemed to have gone away. The fact he was constantly replenishing mana still was another concern entirely, and something he’d need to deal with if he wanted his symptoms to fade, but the best Markus could do for now was lurch himself across the room and grab the morsel of food he’d been left.

He made it from one end of the cell to the other, but it took him a good couple of minutes, and at one point he’d broken into a cold sweat. With the decrease of mana had also come an end to his Overcharge, and all the aches and strains of his tired muscles had come to greet him in full force. Eating was difficult, and it took time for him to prop himself up against the wall fully. He’d considered eating it prone, but dying of choking right after fighting for his life against a massive monster sounded like a miserable way to go.

And so Markus sat, leaned forwards, and ate his cheese. Once the growling in his stomach had abated somewhat, he pulled the system back up and continued scrounging for whatever information he could gather. He needed to understand everything he could about this place and fast if he wanted to survive down here, that much was obvious, and this was the first chance he’d gotten since arriving to actually think. 

This system stuff felt pretty complex when your life was suddenly staked on it. He’d have killed for a YouTube guide or something, but that was wishful thinking. All he could do was rely on his own intuition.

There was a section in the menus that covered quests. One of his ‘active quests’ was his soul contract, and by the section that showed his signed contract, a reward was highlighted next to his first fight’s victory.

It said ‘food and amenities’ was to be his first reward. 

Markus picked up the wet rag, stared at it, then dropped it unenthusiastically. 

Suppose expecting anything of a contract with Drathok was a bad fucking idea. What else is listed here? Ten more ways I can go fuck myself?

Markus’ next discovery was more pleasant. Turns out he’d improved at a variety of skills from his first fight, learning most of them entirely from scratch. His proficiency with glaives was at a 3 (novice) now, he’d increased his dodge proficiency from a starting 3 to a mighty 4, and he’d even achieved a second point in [Identify], as well as learning very basic handling of Shock, Flame, Life, Frost, and Blood Mana.

Alongside the point in [Pyrokinesis] he’d gotten and the few points in [Regeneration] he’d accrued through his fight, it was clear that Markus could improve at a variety of things in a short space of time. 

From what he understood, Overcharge was a factor in all his skill increases, as it temporarily hastened his Growth, but now Markus had more points in Spirit, and that was also meant to be a Growth modifier. 

In other words, he should be able to learn things that bit faster than otherwise now, even without Overcharge. 

Markus grabbed the rag from the floor once more. He stared at it, watching it drip with murky water. 

No way he was gonna wash with this disgusting thing. Might as well get some use out of it.

He checked his mana levels again. 852/990, or ‘86% of capacity’, and steadily increasing. He needed to find a means to deal with the rising tide, and he also needed a better understanding of how to use what was in his body. 

Spirit Mana was confusing to Markus, and a vague system description didn’t help, only telling him that it was ‘a type of energy found in all matter’ and ‘a conduit for many powers’. He barely understood how to move or harness the Spirit Mana in his body. Frost Mana felt more intuitive. It was easier to grasp and pin down in his nervous system.

It was cold. It felt cold. Simple enough. 

What didn’t help was the fact it seemed to be so spread out through his body. It felt as if a small measure of it came from his core, below his stomach, but there was a healthy amount of the stuff just floating around in distant recesses of his body. He couldn’t just harness it and focus it to a point like he had before when he’d been swelling with mana. It’d felt more intuitive then. Now it was like trying to find small pockets of energy within a deep, dark nebula, and bringing them together well enough to direct or aim them proved incredibly difficult.

Markus broke into yet another sweat in his attempts to do so, to isolate the vestiges of Frost Mana within his body and bring them all together. He felt as if he were trying to swirl them around himself, but kept catching stray bits of energy that he didn’t want and losing his concentration, causing the whole process to fall apart. The rag sat cold and limp in his hand as he did so, taunting him with inertia. 

It was his eighth or ninth attempt when he finally saw some fruits for his efforts. Visualisation had been the key, controlling his breathing and moving each part of his body in isolation in an attempt to find the largest stores of Frost Mana within him. That part became routine quickly, but separating that from the warm Blood Mana within was more difficult. He had to actively reject that mana, not take it with him. 

Then directing it was a whole new challenge. The higher and lower grades were impossible for him to differentiate right now. He couldn’t tell which bits of the Frost Mana were leftovers from his fight with the bulleater, and which were newly generated by his harvested mana core.

It didn’t matter to him right then. All that mattered was being able to swirl the mana within him. Once he’d gathered a fair amount of it, he saw a notification go off in the corner, but he ignored it. His focus was too intense right now. He couldn’t let it slip…

Drive it to a point. That’s what he needed to do. Let it coalesce and flow down his arm, through his fingers, and then…

Markus gasped as he felt his right hand go almost completely numb, reddening as he grasped the rag hard just to keep it from slipping through his fingers. 

He watched as the water dripping from it began to slowly solidify, a thin sheet of ice appearing on the surface. A hanging droplet of water froze in place, creating a mini icicle that hung precariously from the edge of the cloth. 

[Cryomancy 0 >> 1.]

Markus, despite himself, cracked a small smile for his first time since arriving. He’d frozen this little rag in place, made it solid. That was incredible, and likely a fraction of what his inborn trait could actually lead to.

Markus placed the rag down, fiercely rubbing his hands together in an attempt to warm the icy one up as the mana dissipated back out into his body. When he checked his current mana again, it was down to 650. Apparently he’d used up a lot in his attempts to make that work. He couldn’t say he was complaining about that.

He still had a lot more to test. For all of his physical exhaustion, the act of using mana alone didn’t seem to take a lot out of him. Use of the resource seemed separate from physical exhaustion for him, at least as far as he could tell, and with little time to waste, not knowing when he might next be pulled into a shitty situation, Markus didn’t have time for rest. He needed to improve his skills as much as he possibly could with the time he’d been afforded.

He decided to focus more on Cryomancy, and its governing skill, Frost Mastery. He eventually had to stop trying to freeze the rag—inflicting Freeze I on both of his hands was enough to make him stop barking up that tree, but not before he’d raised Cryomancy from 1 to 3. 

He spent the rest of the time simply attempting to move the mana around his body, gathering it and sending it from one place to the other. This spent a small degree of mana too, but also made him more proficient at using what he had. By the time he’d spent a couple of solid hours at it, his Frost Mastery had ranked up to 5, and he was utterly exhausted. His body was working overtime to replace all the mana he’d spent, and his system was likely getting fed up with pinging him rank up notifications over and over. 

That said, the final one had been different:

[Frost Mastery: 4 >> 5. Level 5 skills are eligible for paths. 10 Arcana required.]

Fuck. What was a path, and why did he need 10 stupid Arcana points to unlock it?! Guess he knew where part of his next level up was going. Was there a way to refund those last ten skill points? Who needed Agility anyways?

No. This was fine. This was progress. A lot of how this stuff worked was still a mystery to him, and he still had a lot to figure out with the threat of more arena fights looming over him, a procession of gods likely to start bothering him any moment now, and a whole world of threats and problems likely waiting outside for him if he did manage to escape from this place intact.

He’d take small victories. Markus really wished he could practice with Cryomancy until he could freeze off and snap the bars of his cell, but he was barely still conscious. He wasn’t sure if it was simple exhaustion, or if the constant Mana Manipulation had finally taken its toll on him, but he fell asleep sat up against the bars, a kink in his neck, imagining a world so far from here, a place he’d known his whole life, which now felt so distant and alien that it may as well have been a dream.

***

It wasn’t much later that Markus awoke, and it wasn’t to his bed on Earth, nor a rousing dose of caffeine. It wasn’t to someone calling his name, either, or Drathok summoning him.

No. Markus awoke to a horrible, flaming fucking dog creature chewing up the bars directly above his head, bending and melting them as its hot spittle dripped down directly onto Markus’ waiting, sleepy head.

“AHHHHWHATTHEFUCK?!”

Markus scrambled across the cell as the lion-sized creature finally wrestled its way through the bars, clearing a path for itself to enter, leaving molten steel in its wake.

The fiendish creature growled, bearing four sets of teeth at him as eternal flames licked off of its mottled fur. Markus scrambled for his glaive, only to realise that he hadn’t had it since the arena.

Why the fuck was this thing here? What the fuck was this place?

There was no time to ponder the unknown. Only time for action.

With nothing else to arm himself with, Markus grabbed a frozen rag in one hand and a ceramic plate in the other, staggering to his aching feet.

“Alright doggie… let’s play.”