Aura Farming (Apocalypse LitRPG) [BOOK ONE COMPLETE]

36: Night Two


The rest of the day passed with little of note. Greens weren't easy opponents by any stretch of the imagination, but it was rare for them to pose a truly desperate challenge in a one-on-one situation. His repertoire of abilities had grown rather versatile.

That wasn't to say there was no excitement to be had. At one point, he faced a suit of armour that had been animated by luminescent pink sludge. It wielded a sword that seemed to be made of jagged quartz, and it swung the weapon with such speed that the air whistled. Of the four humans, John was the only one that could even see its movement when it attacked. Aside from that, it stumbled around like a drunken knight.

Jade was quite chagrinned at being unable to face a monster that, in her own words, "gave a bad name to the Medieval armour look." John's victory through the power of Flash Freeze cheered her up a little—though it seemed like she would have preferred a decisive triumph via bladed combat. Unfortunately, slashing the sludge monster just sprayed glowing gunk everywhere.

More alarming was the moment where a giant albino crocodile ambushed them from a puddle that was far too small for its size. If he wasn't able to cheat through Mana Sense and Soul Vision, that probably would have been a bad one. It was two metres long from tail to tip, and it quickly displayed that it could teleport through water like puddles were portals, briefly disappearing after John was able to dodge its opening attack.

Luckily for him, the crocodile monster didn't anticipate Electric Shock. After a minute or so of frustrating back-and-forth, John got fed up of the monster constantly appearing and disappearing, and Accelerated over to the puddle he could feel its Mana transferring to. Sticking his finger into the water and activating his Spell worked far greater than he ever could have hoped. The monster appeared with a pop of displaced air, its body smoking, fried.

He got a lot of Aura for that one, even though he'd been denied the opportunity to hurl any insults.

The only other fight of note, as far as John was concerned, was provided by a bell-shaped mushroom monster that dragged itself along like a caterpillar and dealt out mean headbutts with its blue-and-white cap. Swathes of smaller mushrooms spawned for metres around wherever it struck, including the top of his boot when he didn't move fully out of the way in time, too distracted with trying to come up with more amusing culinary quips.

"You look like you'd do nicely in my stir-fry," hadn't been his best offering, and as an opening salvo it was downright embarrassing.

Still, he'd managed to accumulate another 1000 Aura before the mushroom monster fell to a well-placed Fireball.

When he watched the others face off against blue monsters, his versatility in combat was really highlighted. It wasn't that they were weak themselves, necessarily. Their abilities were all good in their own ways. But he could imagine scenarios for all of them where their powers would be ineffective, through no fault of their own. What would Chester do against a blind enemy? How would Jade handle something massively faster than her? And how could Lily overcome an opponent that could either dodge her bolts or simply shrugged them off with an armoured body or some such?

John wouldn't have any problems like that. Even if there was something that could face off against the full breadth of his present abilities, he was sure he'd be able to find a solution to the problem somewhere among the Spells and Skills he hadn't unlocked yet.

That seemed rather unfair to him. Why had he been granted such absurd versatility? It was clear that the system was designed to place users in uncomfortable situations, dangling their continued survival over their heads as a bribe.

He just didn't understand how his broad powers factored into that. For the others, even the abilities they were granted were clearly meant to evoke more of that discomfort. For example, Lily obviously had some problem or other with ranged attacks, and so the system only gave her the option of ranged attacks. John didn't see how his Spells and Skills applied, there. It was all too versatile, and gained too quickly. Had the system made a mistake? Was it glitched, somehow?

With a sigh, he had to dismiss them as questions for later. Their slow march north was interrupted by the sky darkening once more.

It happened just as the others were finishing up a fight against a blue-souled candle monster that flung boiling wax with flicks of its head. They'd managed to defeat it by attrition as much as anything, simply whittling away at its body with golden slices and silver crossbow bolts. A death by a thousand cuts. They were watching the monster as it faded into a waxy white puddle when a shadow began to fall over them.

John reacted immediately, activating Accelerate and searching the sky for an incoming enemy—his first assumption had been an airborne attack, having been put on guard against such things by their previous encounter with the bat monster. The enemy turned out to be indeed a skyborne one, but it was nothing new, and too far away to do anything about besides.

The black circle was only partially visible from their angle, in the back garden of a suburban neighbourhood. It loomed over central London yet again, its mere presence upsetting the fabric of the world, drawing a dark curtain over the fiery sky. Undoubtedly, it was drooling black ichor right into the Thames. Its purposes were anyone's guess, but any human being who looked at that thing could only conclude it was their ultimate enemy.

Johns mood plummeted. Even partly obscured, he could feel the weight of the abomination's attention. It settled on his shoulders, heavy and cloying, and he couldn't help but tense up. His hands fisted so hard his knuckles popped. A distant part of him noted he might end up breaking some teeth if he didn't unclench it. Accelerate came to an end as his heartbeat picked up.

"You think you can just show up whenever you want, huh?" John murmured. His voice sounded far away. "Think you can just appear and disappear at will?"

"Hoped that fucker was gone for good," Jade's voice was somewhere beside him. John couldn't see her. His vision had tunnelled, putting him at one and and that horrible thing at the other.

"What even is it?" Chester whispered.

"Evil," Lily said.

"Something that has to die," John said.

"You think that's possible?" Jade asked. "Like, is that bastard even something that can die? It looks like some kind of unholy force of nature to me."

"There's nothing natural about that thing," Lily said.

"You know what I mean." Jade's voice was hard. "I just don't understand how we even go about killing something like that."

"With overwhelming power," John said.

+800 Aura

The notification snapped him out of his fury. The tunnel faded away and his vision expanded to encompass the totality of the world around him—which, of course, included the three companions staring at him with a mixture of expressions. John didn't bother trying to interpret them. Instead, he turned on his heel, contemptuously putting his back to the singularity monster, and walked away. The other soon followed.

Within an hour, the sky had faded to the familiar facsimile of night time, with those strange shadowy creases reaching from horizon to horizon. Apparently, this really was going to be a daily occurrence. John considered the implications of that as they travelled.

First, it became obvious in no time that this false night altered the activity of the monsters. The moment the black hole had showed itself, the patterns of movement among the abominations had changed, becoming more proactive. In the day, the monsters could almost be called lazy, especially the weaker ones such as the blues and greens. Most of them seemed content to seek out blood stains, and do whatever the fuck it was they did with the blood.

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Now, they seemed to patrol. No longer content with old remains, they were clearly seeking out living creatures to victimise. Grinding became problematic, and soon John and the others were forced back into the evasive tactics they had to take following their escape from the mansion the previous night.

Thus, reaching the fields at the edge of the city came with little feeling of triumph. There was some relief at the milestone, but the knowledge that there was only more danger awaiting them rather dampened any positive emotions. Taking hours for each mile travelled was demotivating.

It wasn't totally dark in the stretch of countryside before them, not even close. But there were ominous shadows aplenty, and enough gloom to potentially hide things that could be beyond the reach of his Mana Sense. The land wasn't flat and open, either. Hedges and trees marked the boundaries between undulating fields, and John knew there'd be ditches and valleys and other little hiding places.

The thing was, that was actually somewhat good for them. Crossing these fields under the exposing light of 'day' would only be more problematic. The shadows and hiding spots could prove great boons. Unfortunately, it went without saying that the monsters would be able to use those hiding spots, too. Mana Sense would alert him to their presence ahead of time, but the possibility of being exposed and chased down by a large horde seemed rather high.

Especially with the monsters' increased activity. The difference between monster behaviour in the night versus the day was…well…night and day. Whether the black hole was the cause of this change or just another product of the sun setting, he couldn't say.

"What do you lot think we should do?" Jade whispered. They were crouched at the edge of a road, peeking through a gap in a bush at the fields beyond.

John couldn't help noticing the weariness in her voice. Despite the magical rest he'd gotten the night before, he was feeling a bit of fatigue himself. Rest seemed to have no extra benefits beyond shortening the amount of time he needed to spend asleep. They were approaching 24 hours since he'd slept, and he was starting to feel the groggy malaise that came from a tired body.

"Rest," John said, blinking slowly. "We need to rest."

Lily nodded. "I feel like I could sleep a whole day away right now." Then she shuddered and glanced back towards the city. "At the same time, I don't know how I'm going to get any shuteye without being literally at the point of collapsing from exhaustion."

"Almost there, myself," Chester mumbled. His eyes were half lidded. He said something more, but it was too garbled to understand.

"Right," Jade said. "Doing this right now seems a bad idea. So, we try to find somewhere safe, yeah?"

John nodded.

After some further discussion, they decided it would be best to find somewhere safe for the night. Nowhere was truly safe, but they did manage to invade the patrolling monsters and make their way into a house at the very edge of the fields without being spotted or sensed. From there, they climbed up into the attic and closed the hatch behind them. They had picked the place because they'd seen it had windows on the roof that would let them see both out into the fields and into the street, while the attic itself would provide them at least a modicum of security.

It was almost midnight by the time they settled down, according to John's watch. The attic was cluttered with old junk, but there were some bedsheets stowed away that they were able to make little nests from to get comfortable—or at least something closer to comfortable than having to try and sleep on hard wooden floorboards.

Little conversation passed between them. They lethargically munched on bits of food John had stuffed into his Inventory, then the others quickly started falling asleep. Jade snored. Lily babbled nonsense in her sleep. Chester fidgeted, turning over and over like he couldn't get comfortable and wasn't exhausted enough to conk out in these conditions.

John had volunteered for first watch since he was the only one with the ability to actually do so effectively, and he knew he only needed two hours anyway. Perhaps less, if he upgraded the ability.

Fuck it. I'm doing it.

Upgraded Rest Level 0 -> Level 1!

-500 Aura

If the theme of things doubling with every level kept up, he'd probably only be unconscious for an hour. Even that seemed dangerous. The idea of something ambushing him while he was helpless sent a thrill of fear through him like he had been struck by a lightning bolt.

He recalled the last time he used the spell, back at the mansion. It was difficult to believe that a dozen monsters appearing in the place had made no noise, nothing to disturb him and wake him up. The panic room surely hadn't been that soundproof. The commotion should have roused him.

Fuck it. I have plenty of Aura, and I want to spend as little time asleep as I possibly can.

Upgraded Rest Level 1 -> Level 2!

-1000 Aura

He stopped there, though, eyeing his Aura total: 12,300. Paranoid or practical, spending too much Aura on a fairly superfluous Spell seemed inadvisable. He'd get one of the others to help him test it once his watch was up. Whenever that would be.

As if in response to John's thought, Chester made a small, childish whine, full of familiar frustration, before abruptly sitting up. "Fuck, man," he hissed, rubbing his hands over his face. "I can't sleep like this."

The muscular teen looked over in John's general direction. There was a frown on his lips, but a determined gleam appeared in his eyes. He let out a sigh as he flopped back onto his pile of sheets.

John watched him warily. He's not going to try and talk to me, is he?

"I don't know how the hell I'm still alive, man," Chester muttered.

Oh god, he is. And he's going to talk about emotions and stuff, too. This is just like that time when I was in the living room when Sophie came home drunk.

John seriously considered using rest right then and there. Failing that, he could always jump out the window. That seemed a reasonable option.

"There are so many awesome, amazing people out there who deserve to be here so much more," Chester said, voice warbling.

Fuuuuuck. He's not going to cry, is he? John decided to find something interesting to look at out the window. Just doing my job. Keeping watch. Nothing awkward here.

"I don't even know what happened to the rest of the guys from the gym. Or Mum and Dad. Grandma. My friends. All the guys and girls from school. That guy from the corner shop who always smiled and waved as I walked past." Chester choked on his words and fell briefly silent. He spent a moment taking deep, shuddering breaths. "I hope they met their own versions of Jade. Another Lily. Some badass weirdo like you, too."

John was left with mixed feelings. Knowing he was seen as a badass when that was quite literally the most important factor in his continued survival was relieving. The weirdo part on the other hand… Well, that was more familiar.

Didn't mean it didn't hurt, though.

"How does a useless, incompetent idiot like me end up here? I saw… There were so many people. So many monsters. Bodies everywhere. The screaming. Oh my god, how the fuck am I meant to close my eyes without seeing and hearing all that shit over and over again?" His breathing was becoming more laboured. "And I just ran and ran and ran. Didn't even think of stopping to help anyone. There was. Oh God. There was this kid. A little kid. She couldn't have been any older than— oh God. I'm the worst person ever, man. Why the fuck are you all even helping me? You should leave me as bait next time there's a big monster. My powers would let me hold its attention. At least then I might actually be useful for something."

Silence filled the room, broken only by Chester's quiet sobs. He was definitely crying.

Should I say something? What, though? "There, there"? "I'm sure they're alright"? "You're not completely useless"?

The biggest problem was: he didn't even know how to go about comforting someone at the best of times. Doing it without looking lame? He hadn't the first fucking clue. The silence stretched out longer and longer, and John's discomfort grew. He felt like there was a nuclear bomb sitting a few feet away from him, and any wrong movement would make it blow.

But he had to do something, right? Anything had to be better than sitting here in silence, even if it was some worthless platitude. John searched for the right words and came up with nothing. It felt like the silence was starting to snowball, getting bigger and bigger the longer it went on. His stomach had been transmuted into lead. His heart was trying to pound its way out of his chest.

Say something, man. Come on. Anything.

John's mouth stayed closed. Minutes passed by. Chester's breathing evened out, and John hoped that meant the guy had fallen asleep—and that his exhausted tirade would be thoroughly forgotten in the morning.

More time went by. Cloudy thoughts drifted around John's mind. They were wispy and indistinct for the most part, too ethereal to find any true purchase in his consciousness. But there was one that did rise to the top and gained some semblance of form: a realisation, and a strange one at that.

In one distinct way, John's experiences so far had been blessed. Somehow, he hadn't seen anyone die. Oh, there had been bloodstains everywhere. Too many to even hope to deny the grim reality that possibly millions of people had lost their lives already.

But he hadn't seen human death for himself. Not yet.

And it seemed all too serendipitous that this epiphany would strike him just as he caught sight of a small group of people fleeing across the fields outside.

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