<Alex, Real - Endure, High School Hallway>

On the way to the base cafeteria, Alex considered pulling on his greatcoat but decided to leave it in his Inventory for now. Instead, he pulled up his notifications–the proof and explanation of the rewards for his recent efforts.

Basic Mana Sense (Common) Mana is everywhere within the System, now you have the ability to actually sense it. Mental Power and Agility have a marginally greater effect when you are trying to detect magic, mana, or other forms of power around yourself.

→

Basic Mana Sense (Uncommon) Mana is everywhere within the System, now you have the ability to actually sense it. Through exposure and intentional practice, you have learned to pull more than basic or generic information from your Basic Mana Sense. Mental Power and Agility have a slightly greater effect when you are trying to detect magic, mana, or other forms of power around yourself.

That was a simple enough change. He had demonstrated that he saw more than 'magic here' and 'no magic there.' The System was acknowledging that and giving him a bit more of a helping hand. He wasn't actually getting more information, but he was seeing more in the information he got.

Hey, I think I'm starting to understand what the 'rarity' changes actually mean.

That buoyed his mood, he moved to the next notification.

Basic Mana Manipulation (Common) Mana is everywhere within the System, now you have the ability to actually interact with it. Mental and Magical Power and Agility have a marginally greater effect when you are trying to manipulate mana around yourself.

→

Basic Mana Manipulation (Uncommon) Mana is everywhere within the System, now you have the ability to actually interact with it. Through exposure and intentional practice, you have learned to do more than simply slosh power around in the general direction needed to enact spells. Mental and Magical Power and Agility have a slightly greater effect when you are trying to manipulate mana around and within yourself.

Again, the changes were rather obvious, though this description was a bit more insulting. I was doing more than just sloshing power about… right?

Regardless, he was now explicitly able to do more, and it even quite specifically referenced moving power within himself… Oh, nuked potato.

The Basic Mana Manipulation that he'd had was seemingly oriented outward. Sure, it hadn't said it wouldn't work inside, but he'd just assumed that 'around' included within. Now it did, or rather the skill did.

But that meant that he should be better able to control magic around himself as well. He had tried to create spell effects in that way, with no success, but he hadn't tried to do anything else. I should see if I can alter incoming magic… if I can find a safe way to test it.

Regardless, he moved more quickly, pulling up the next notification. They were approaching the back of the line, and he wanted to be able to focus outward sooner rather than later.

New Skill Acquired: Basic Internal Life Manipulation (Simple)

Synergy Detected: New skill is life based as is your Class. Would you like to make your new skill: Basic Internal Life Manipulation, a Class Skill?

Y/N

Alex immediately indicated yes.

New Class Skill: Basic Internal Life Manipulation (Simple)

Basic Internal Life Manipulation (Simple) Life is required to live, but for most, it is simply something that exists within them, never to be directly manipulated.

Not you, you have earned the ability to actually interact with it.

You can now specifically direct your Life within your body to accomplish tasks others will see as magic. Impairments may be directly addressed with an accompanying expenditure of Life energy. Mental Power and Agility have a minusculely greater effect when you are trying to manipulate Life within yourself.

Apology Tutorial Addendum: You could already do this, you say? Well, now you can do it better, and there's a convenient name for it and means for progression.

Not everything has to be a flashy, overpowering upgrade, Alex. Have some gratitude.

"I… was grateful?" He muttered almost to himself.

There was no response.

He sighed, even as John cast a side eye his way. "The System is being snarky again…"

John huffed a laugh. "It does seem that way at times, doesn't it?"

"Yeah…" Alex thought for another moment. Wait… Why didn't my Mana skills become class skills? Is it because my class isn't really a magic class, or something like that?

Before he could consider for too much longer, John broke the silence, "Did you get anything good for your training? I mean aside from the ability to blow yourself up."

"Actually yeah." They fell to discussing various things they'd come across, but the conversation was quickly cut off when they heard raised voices up ahead.

It didn't sound urgent, so they didn't speed up, but they did turn their focus that way. Soon, they saw a good number of teens all huddled in a group, many holding their heads as if they were in great pain as Kaylee and several teachers spoke firmly to the gathering in a seemingly alternating cycle.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

The stench of alcohol and bile that was wafting off of the young men and women made the reason for the lecture abundantly clear.

Alex also noticed that no adults were coming forward to claim, defend, or berate the students either, making the composition of the group obvious.

These were mostly—if not all—from the group whose families had not been recovered or rescued.

The kids were quite obviously a bit more irked whenever Kaylee spoke when compared to the teachers who were essentially giving the same message. To add to that, when they saw Alex and John?

They glared even through bloodshot eyes.

Videogame logic indeed…

It was silly that they all recognized them on sight and directed such ire toward Alex and John. They also had less ire for Kaylee, who was also staying around the base, and none at all for the teachers, as if they somehow knew exactly who could have been doing what they wanted done and only directed their bad feelings as that indicated.

People don't act that way, at least not teenagers dealing with grief and hangovers. Still, he sighed and put the matter from his mind.

It was ridiculous, and Kaylee was handling it.

They keep finding alcohol… somehow. He shook his head. Foolishness.

The food-line was as quick as ever, and they received a wonderful breakfast bun that, for all its wonder, was really odd.

"Who bakes oatmeal inside of sweet dough as a filling inside a bun?"

"These cooks, apparently." John shrugged, taking a bite even as he held an apple in his off hand.

This was apparently the last fruit gained from their raiding the day before, but that made sense. They didn't want any to go to waste, and with so many people pulling from the stores? Yeah, things like fresh fruit wouldn't stick around long.

He took a bite of the apple. "Delicious."

Alex grunted. "I have literally ten gallons of dried apple chips sitting in my pantry at home."

John frowned. "Why didn't you grab that? Come on, Alex, that was a rookie mistake. We can probably get to your apartment and back in less than half an hour if we run it."

Alex waved him off. "No, no. On Earth."

That stopped the other man. "Oh… yeah." He grunted. "I sometimes forget that this is all… yeah." He huffed a laugh. "That's ridiculous, isn't it? How could I be seeing this as 'real' or 'right.'"

"It isn't ridiculous. This is our new reality, it seems." Alex sighed. "I only meant that I have all those stores, and other things besides, and they won't be of any use to me until we get back, assuming I have any way of getting to them, once I am back."

John grunted. "I'd love to try some of those apple chips. You dehydrate them yourself?"

"Yeah. Honeycrisp apples, spiralized to a quarter inch, brushed with a little lemon water to keep them from browning, and dried."

"Huh. Pilar always wanted to do that, but I mainly just did jerky in our dehydrator."

"Well, I'll trade you some apple chips for some jerky."

The man laughed. "That sounds like a plan. If we both get our supplies at some point, I'll happily make that trade."

The two fell into silence as they enjoyed their breakfasts side by side.

A few minutes later, James found them, a smile pulling at his lips. "So, Alex, ready for me to throw knives at you?"

Alex sighed, taking a final swallow of water—that he created within his own mouth—before responding. "Sure. Let's do this."

They walked out away from everyone else, onto the field for a sport that seemed to be similar to soccer… or maybe football? Alex wasn't really a big sports guy. He was sure it wasn't like baseball or basketball though.

Regardless, they took up a position near the middle of the expanse.

James had a round, perforated container of butter knives as a start. "Alright! Let's first make sure that this counts as an attack."

He pulled out one of the knives and whipped it at Alex. Alex's left hand moved practically on its own, but he definitely felt something like a 'ping' that he instinctively agreed to.

Was this an attack that he wanted to block? Yes. Yes, it was.

The butterknife hit his palm and did, effectively, nothing. James nodded. "That seemed to work, did it trigger the skill?"

"Yeah." Alex nodded. I need to take a more active hand in the use of this as well. He both winced and chuckled to himself at the terrible pun.

"Alright, the next test is two knives thrown at once. That way we can see if they are seen as 'one attack' for your skill."

He blinked a few times. "Oh… yeah, I didn't even think about that. You mean, throwing both at the same time, with the same hand?"

"Exactly." James smiled and nodded.

The next ten minutes or so were rather boring as James tested a ton of things with Alex to determine the edges of his defensive skill.

Two knives thrown by the same hand at the same time seemed to count as one attack, even if one was aimed at Alex's head and one at his feet.

Honestly, Alex was utterly unsure how James was able to execute such a throw, but that was hardly the point, or at least he'd thought it wasn't until he got confused enough to inquire.

As it turned out, doing so was a skill that James had. That was—they theorized—why Alex's defensive skill considered it one attack.

It had been odd for them both to see how Alex's skill allowed for the blocking of both. It was also the first time that Alex recalled seeing the results of the skill's notation 'Requires the chosen hand to intercept at least a part of the incoming attack.'

He blocked the upper of the two incoming knives, and the other simply… stopped in place, dropping to the ground untouched.

James had arched an eyebrow at that. "That's weird, bruv."

Alex shrugged. "System magic, I suppose."

"Well… it's explicitly not magic?"

He snorted. "I suppose so, yeah. Seems that 'magic' isn't the only thing that we'll see as magical." He sighed. "Which we already knew and have experienced, of course."

"Of course."

When James did something similar with four knives, only two of which were affected by his attack skill, Alex felt the difference immediately.

At a deep level—the level at which he was learning that his skills existed and acted—he knew he could choose to block the two knives that were affected by James' skill, or one of the other two, individually.

Even so, when he chose to deflect the two, it acted exactly how it had before.

As to the other two knives? One smacked Alex in the stomach, and the other actually hit his hand as well, that one actually hitting hard enough, and in a way to break the skin, even if only barely.

It took less than ten seconds to seal back up.

James grunted. "So, your hand isn't made all but invincible as it's blocking. It's just given immunity to wounds from the attack that you are blocking." He sighed. "That removes a lot of fun hacks that I was going to suggest."

Alex grunted. "Yeah, if I could try to stab myself with a needle and hold the pressure on, maintaining that 'attack', thus having an all but invincible hand? That would be a bit broken."

"Indeed."

That was the tenor of those first few minutes.

What they learned, effectively boiled down to: Anything that was under the umbrella of a single skill on James' part could be blocked by Alex's defensive one, even things that seemed to explicitly be multiple attacks, like a thrown-weapon-only equivalent of multi-strike.

Alex wished that he could try it on himself, to see just how distinct the attacks could be and still qualify.

The only really odd thing they encountered in those early tests was when James used a Storm Throw skill that let him throw a knife every half a second or so for ten seconds.

It counted as a single attack, and as such, Alex actually had gotten a 'banked' defensive use about half-way through. The 'damage' that he was taking still stacked up, and he knew that if it continued—or if the knives had been more damaging to begin with—his hand would likely take damage sooner rather than later, but that was beyond James at the moment.

Even with better knives, the 80% reduction of incoming damage that was effectively halved again meant that 10% of the incoming damage would need to be equivalent to 1,320 hp.

If James could do 13,200 hp of damage, that would be capable of killing Alex nearly three times over. Yeah, I'd accept a bit of cutting on my hand to block something like that…

James stretched. "Alright! Now, it's time to see if my skills can counter yours in more direct contests."

"Oh?" Alex gave the young man a hesitant look.

James grinned in return. "Oh, yeah. This is going to be fun."

Alex swallowed, hoping that his friend was correct, while not liking the glint in the young man's eye.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.