Arcane Apocalypse

7 – Not Dead Yet. Hurray!

A faint whispered conversation pulled Mia out of her slumber. She’d always been a light sleeper — if she didn’t drink, that is. A shot of vodka had been enough to make sure she would sleep like a corpse on more than one occasion.

Speaking of corpses, it seemed like she wasn’t one yet.

Her eyes snapped open as the fight and the following pain wracked moments flashed in her mind.

Mia took a sharp breath and glanced at her right shoulder. She stared. The feather was gone. 

Slowly, gingerly, she twitched her fingers on her right hand. No pain. She moved her wrist around, then her lower arm. A sharp pain made her stop when she tried to lift her entire arm.

Mia hissed as her hand flopped back. The pain was horrible, but not the pure agony it was before, not even close. But she still hated it. She wasn’t a masochist, and pain was pain. At least she could keep awake through this one.

“Ah,” came a high-pitched feminine voice before Mia heard rapid footsteps rushing close. A mop of brown hair topped off with two floppy rabbit ears swam into her vision. “Don’t move dear, not yet. Your joint is still injured and I fear you have some torn ligaments.”

Mia blinked slowly. Wasn’t this the same bunny lady she saw cursing up a storm in the hallway yesterday? Wait! “Where …? What?”

“Your friend will explain,” the woman nodded to the side. “You just stay put. If this stupid thing works as advertised, you should be up and about in a day or two. In a week, you’ll be as good as new! Make sure to drink as much water as you can and eat a lot of food. I can’t do anything about your blood deficiency, so stay put or you’ll probably faint. Alright, dear?”

Mia gave a slow nod, trying to make her sluggish mind decipher the quick barrage of sounds as words. With a final squint at her face and a satisfied nod when Mia didn’t try to flop out of the bed or something, the bunny lady hopped off.

Mia stared up at the ceiling. It was unfamiliar. Not her bedroom, for sure. Before she could panic, a hand gently grabbed her uninjured shoulder and made Mia glance up at the owner.

“Hi,” Mark said, looking … strange. Mia had trouble picking out any distinctly identifiable emotion on his scrunched-up face. “So, uh, how do you feel?”

“I’m alive,” Mia said, stopping the shrug she was about to give before it could send another spike of pain through her. “Better than before. I thought I was … “

Mia closed her eyes and took a shuddering breath. During the fight, she didn’t have much time to feel frightened. Now that she did, she was feeling the rapid approach of another panic attack. The touch of death, and the certainty that she would never wake up again once she let her eyelids fall was the most terrifying thing she’d ever experienced.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright!” Mark said hastily, hand grasping her shaking shoulder as shivers rushed up and down Mia’s spine. “You are good. That cunt of a bird is bloody scrap, and Ms Lara healed you up nicely. She has healing magic now. Crazy, isn’t it?”

“Lara?” Mia asked, though the words ‘healing’ and ‘magic’ were the ones that caught her attention. “The bunny lady?”

“Yep,” Mark said, then looked around. “Don’t let her hear you call her that though, she … didn’t take well to the changes.”

Mia stared at him, her mouth hanging open in horror. 

“Right,” Mark nodded. “That’s the same face I made when I heard from Rick — her probably ex-boyfriend by now — and why I didn’t want to leave you alone with her.”

He whispered the last part, and Mia shuddered. She imagined her cute pointy ears cut off, or mangled to look rounded like they were before, and her horror turned into glacial dread and revulsion. The shudder that rushed through her body then was one of disgust.

Mia froze and blinked, then thought it all over again. She imagined her fingers being cut off, and when no similar revulsion was forthcoming, tried thinking of looking at herself in a mirror with mangled ears again and the primal feeling surged back in with a vengeance.

“Ah, fuck,” Mark cursed. “Uh, sorry, I wasn’t- I mean, hey, you did magic against the bird, right? Isn’t that awesome? What spell was it? And what class did you choose again? I think I forgot.”

Mia let out a snort at his horrendous attempt at changing the topic. She took in a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and then let it out in a huff. That was weird as hell … did I get implanted instincts too? I suppose those came with the new race. Elves are supposed to hate having their ears messed with and especially cut off. 

Mia raised her left hand up to her ear and gently ran a fingertip over the earlobe up to the tip. Her whole body twitched and curled up, goosebumps ran down her back and raised the hairs on her neck.

“Hrghh.” She let out an extremely unladylike sound, somewhere between a groan and a moan. Then the pain from her poor right shoulder slapped her in the face and she quickly relaxed her body with a grimace. “Owwww. Damn.”

“Eh?” Mark stared at her, thankfully more weirded out than … whatever else most men would have felt if they heard the sound she made. “What? Are you alright?”

“Yes,” Mia wheezed. “I’m just an idiot.”

“That’s nothing new,” Mark started, then stopped himself. Three years of throwing insults at each other for fun made his mouth flap before his brain caught up at times. “I mean. That’s good. I don’t know how good Lara’s magical bullshit healing is. For all I know, she just pumped you full of some magical morphine and fucked off.”

“No,” Mia said. “I don’t think- I- Ah, fuck. I would be dead if she didn’t help. Pretty sure.”

She was still struggling with coming to terms with that. Probably would for quite a while.

“How did you find her, anyway?” Mia asked. “And where are we? Are there still monsters- “

“Don’t worry about that,” Mark cut in. “And she just sort of stumbled out of her apartment a bit after you … fell asleep and almost fell over you. Apparently, her boyfriend got roughed up pretty bad by another little fucker and she sort of panic-picked some sort of magical healer class.”

He shrugged then, as if that explained it. “So she is healing up every injured person now?”

“Pretty much,” Mark shrugged again. “And we are on the first floor. Jeff opened up a bunch of unoccupied apartments and said it would be our mini-hospital from now on.”

“And the-” Mia thought back to the bird and held back another shudder. Something that strong shouldn’t be that small, that quick and that malicious. Mia never thought pure evil existed before, but one look into the monster’s eyes was enough to shatter that belief beyond all hope. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “The monsters?”

“Well,” Mark scratched his neck, not looking at her. “I don’t know for sure, but Jeff and some others … they are bloody monsters- not in the way the bird-thing was. They went from floor to floor and curb stomped every little shitstain that got into the apartments. I saw Jeff just tank one of those birds slashing at him before he just tore its head off like nothing.”

Mark looked back at her, his gaze vacant with an echo of fear. Mia supposed seeing a man kill the monster that almost killed both of them would be somewhat traumatic. Hell, she was sure she’d be seeing that bird again when she fell asleep. Free subscription to a month of NightmarePlus, great. My favourite streaming site.

“So,” Mia said, shaking off the lingering terror. “Are we … safe?”

“As much as we can be, I suppose,” he snorted. “Jeff is a paranoid bastard. He had a two inch thick metal wall lowered over the front gates and every window is currently being barricaded. Plus, those who went through the floors butchering the monsters are freakishly strong … I think they levelled up a bunch.”

“Level- “

[You have contributed to the death of a monster! Congratulations!]

[Level Up!]

[Level: 1 -> 2]

[Free Attribute Points: 0 -> 3]

[{Newcomer} Quest-chain Unlocked! Check the ‘Quests’ tab]

[REALM NOTIFICATION! The first Realm Event of the cosmic Realm has begun! Kill monsters, close Rifts, earn rewards!]

“Eh?” Mia gasped. “Realm Event? Quests?”

“Oh! Right!” Mark snapped out of his brooding and brightened up. “I was worried you didn’t get that Quest-thingy — you got it right? The newcomer’s quest-chain? — I didn’t know whether I’d messed that up for you by stealing your kill- Did you get XP for it?”

“Stop.” Mia closed her eyes. In and out. In through the nose, hold … and out through the mouth. “I levelled up once, got three attribute points, got the questline and a … Realm Notification?”

“Oh, that’s great!” Mark grinned. “I levelled up too, already put my points into strength and constitution. Anyway, that quest thing is … well, I don’t know how long we can go without, you know, fighting monsters, but the first few quests are easy. You can blast through them once you get better. They were worth it. The Realm thingy is some sort of reward system for fighting monsters that escaped rifts and for closing those rifts.”

“You figured that all out while I was out?” Mia asked, baffled.

“I mean, you were out for almost twelve hours,” He shrugged. “I was bored. Plus, some guys who were cleaning out the monsters were happy to share some info too about the quest-chain.” 

Mia opened up the Interface, and found the Quests tab without much fuss, then opened it up.

[Quests]

[{Newcomer} Introductory (1)]

Objective:

• Raise one of your attributes by adding an awarded free Attribute Point.

[Reward: A System generated book of your choice.]

[Realm Event: Rift Mayhem]
Objectives:

• Kill monsters: 1
• Enter a Rift! 
• Clear a Rift: 0
• Clear and Close a Rift: 0
• Contribute to securing your home against monsters: None (10%)
• Assist those fending off monsters and diving Rifts: None (0%)

[Rewards will be given at the end of each week based on each User’s contribution! The Event will end once the Realm stabilised!]

[Failing this event might mean not only the end of your town, but that of your planet and the Realm as a whole]

“Huh,” Mia stared. “A book? … Oh wow, that’s a lot of objectives.”

“Don’t diss the book,” Mark cut it. “The list it lets you choose from has all sorts of crazy stuff from it. A bestiary of common monsters, basic mana theory books, runic lexicons and a bunch of other things.”

“What did you get?” Mia asked curiously.

“A book on ‘wildly known’ Rank 0 Classes and their prerequisites,” He grinned, though he rolled his eyes at the wildly known part. “Anyway. It was awesome, and it offers up that same thing again for some of the following quests so you could get yourself a bunch of magic books or whatever else you need to shoot out those things that you did.”

“Huh,” Mia blinked, then smiled slightly. “So I just have to put a point into something … “

[Attributes]

[Body: 4] (+)

[Mind: 4] (+)

[Spirit: 5] (+)

[Free Attribute Points: 3]

“What?” Mia frowned. “Why are they? … I’m pretty sure I didn’t have these stats before?”

She turned to Mark, who sported a thoughtful frown. “Your stats went up?”

Mia nodded. “And not just a bit. My Spirit went from one to five.”

“Huh,” Mark scratched his beard. “Well, shit, Sam was probably right then. Your race is supposed to be all magical, right? With you being some discount elf?”

“Yes.” Mia rolled her eyes, a strange sense of pride flaring in her chest. It insisted elves were discount versions of her. Not the other way around. 

“Well, Sam got turned into a cat-boy,” Mark snickered. “And his Body attribute jumped up three points. Not instantly, but over a few hours and with no system notifications. He assumed it was because his stats were playing catch-up with his new body.”

“Who’s Sam?” Mia asked while shelving the new information away. So being a Halvyr gave her free stat points? Great. She would dearly need every drop of spirit point if she wanted to do magic.

“The guy living next-door,” Mark rolled his eyes. “You know, the guy who’s had the hots for you for the last two years and comes over to fix up all of our stuff?”

“I thought you hired him to do that,” Mia frowned, then glared at him. “Did you rope the poor guy into doing housework for free?”

“Maybeeee,” Mark averted his eyes. “I only told him it was a good opportunity to start up a conversation with a girl. And that most girls like handy guys.”

“Right,” Mia doubled the intensity of her glare. “Most girls. Will he think I’m just being a bitch and lying when I tell him I much prefer girls?”

“Like good old Arnie? Probably not,” Mark shrugged. “He’s a bit slow, but a nice guy.”

“You’re such an asshole,” Mia ran a hand down her face and groaned. “I hope he beats you up for it.”

“He can try,” Mark grinned. “I’m so close to getting my Spellblade Class. He can try all he wants.”

“Spellblade?” Mia asked. 

“Yep.” He straightened up and puffed out his chest. “Got a claymore and all, and it should work well with my Major Earth affinity if that book isn’t a scam. I just need to get another book that teaches me some basic mana theory and I have to get an Earth Mana Manipulation secondary skill.”

“Ah,” Mia opened her mouth, then shut it. “Did I fuck up by choosing a class already? What if-”

“You’d be birdfeed if you didn’t choose a class already,” Mark reminded her. At her flinch, he grimaced. “Sorry, too soon? Yeah, too soon. Sorry again. Anyway, you’ll just have to get a better class at Rank 1 and merge the two. Apparently that’s the way to raise class rarity and to fill up your empty Subskill slots.”

“Riiiiight,” Mia nodded. The words were familiar, and she had an inkling of what each meant, but she was woefully lacking in any deeper knowledge. A thought hit her. “You got any books like ‘basic system knowledge’ or something?”

“Nope,” He looked at her weirdly. “Why would I?”

“How the hell do you know what all those things are then?” Mia frowned. 

“I mean, I just … read the description?” He gave her a strange look. “That ‘Newcomer’ Title lets you view a basic description of almost any system handle. You should probably go over your entire Interface with a comb. Might help with the boredom in here … no phones to play on and all that.”

“I guess?” Mia said. “Can you give me the books you don’t need anymore? And tell me what you have? I don’t want to waste these … quest rewards on duplicates.”

“Sure,” Mark nodded. “Anyway, after that, I’m going to go … I don’t like not having a class, even if the building is mostly safe now. What if a damned Rift opens up under my bed?”

After that, he gave her a list of his books, then trudged off to do his thing and Mia was left alone in the tiny bedroom with her thoughts. She just stared up at the ceiling for a few seconds in silence, replaying the last moments of the fight that ended up with her needing magical healing to survive.

Should have gone for a healing class … maybe a tank? Why am I such an idiot? Mia grumbled at her previous self some more, throwing curses at her for jumping at the chance of being a mage. This is real life, not a game. I should have gone for a class that helps me stay alive, not one that’s just as likely to kill me as the monsters.

Her rudimentary knowledge granted to her by the Arcane Mage class told her that much. Out of the seven essential elements, arcane was the most likely to blow up not just the target, but the caster and their immediate surroundings too.

The arcane was wild and ferocious, and the further down the path an arcane mage is, the more dangerous it gets. Both for them and their surroundings. 

Well, if I am going for offence, I might as well go all in and be the best at it? Mia thought uncertainly. But that was it. Her class was chosen and locked in. She might be able to shape it some by merging it with some other class, but she’d be an arcane mage for life. I really hope I didn’t fuck up my whole life with that choice.

Mia took a deep breath and resolved herself to be more cautious going forward. She was going to glare the hell out of every line of the Interface and dig up all of its secrets before she made another serious decision. 

Like picking where to put her fancy new stat points. The magic gremlin in her wanted to chuck it all into Spirit, but she didn’t even know what Spirit was. She just assumed it had to do with mana and magic.

So she glared at it like it kicked her puppy. 

***

[Spirit Attribute: 5] ( - )

• Desc: The Attribute governing the power, size and density of the spirit. Helps in controlling energies and warding off foreign supernatural influence.

• {Newcomer}’s Desc: The Main Attribute is the average of the Sub-attributes rounded down. Raise the sub-attributes beyond the threshold to raise the main attribute.

Sub-attributes:

• Control: 4

• Sensitivity: 9

• Manifestation: 3

***

Oh, so that plus there wasn’t for adding the free point, but to view this page? Mia thought, her eyes going over the whole page with a severe glare. The system awarded her for it with a short description of each sub-attribute.

***

Control: The ease with which your spirit can mould mana, though its effects seem more like the User’s mana becoming easier to mould. It is a sort of metaphysical dexterity of one’s spirit.

Sensitivity: The spirit’s sensitivity to mana and other forms of supernatural energies, including the spiritual energy and power of other beings.

Manifestation: The ease with which one can manifest phenomena using mana. One’s ‘affinity’ with magic. Together with Willpower from the Mind Attribute, these determine the speed and ease of spell-casting.

***

Mia’s eyes glinted with glee. Finally, some useful information. Her implanted knowledge severely lacked any sort of practical know-how and information about how to use the system itself. It was like someone took all the ‘must read’ books for a mage apprentice and shoved it all into her head, word for word.

It was hard to navigate at the best of times, and useless for the most part. Especially since she had to constantly do mental gymnastics to search for what every third silly magical word meant. Magic jargon was much worse than techno, in her unbiased opinion.

Why is my Sensitivity so high? Are Halvyr really that great at it? Mia eyed the stat, then shrugged. Free stat points couldn’t be bad. Though, seeing how far apart the other two stats were annoyed her for some reason. Didn’t I get a Spirit point a while back for ‘training’ it? Can I just … train all my stats up to infinity?

That would have been silly, so probably not. It had to have some limit on it. She would have to see whether that popped up any‌ of the descriptions, if not, she might have to get some ‘system guide book’ as her first reward since Mark focused on class lexicons and then the stuff he needed for his spellblade class.

Mia opened up Mind’s page next.

***

[Mind Attribute: 4] ( - )

• Desc: The Attribute governing the mind. Increasing the Main Attribute increases mental defences, multitasking, and pattern recognition.

Sub-attributes:

• Cognity: 5

• Memory: 6

• Will: 2

***

Mia grimaced. That Will score was pathetic, and she had a suspicion as to why. Before shame could get much of a foothold on her, she thought of something. What if she dumped all her points into Will?

Would it make me braver? Help me actually do … stuff? Mia’s heart pounded in her ears. Didn’t it also say before that willpower is one component of casting magic? What if that’s why my spell refused to come out?

Growing more excited, she opened up the description of each sub-stat.

***

Cognity: The speed at which thoughts flow. The speed of the mind. Increases the amount of sensory data the User can handle.

Memory: The mind’s capability for recording and recalling information.

Will: The willpower of the User, the weight and power of their thoughts. Influences spellcasting, aura, and many more.

***

It didn’t state it outright, but Mia supposed that was all she would get. She glared at it, but no further information popped up. That was it. Well, if bravery was to overcome fear, one needed to have the willpower to do that, right? And this thing did just that. 

It even said it influenced spellcasting, twice. For now, Will sat on the top of her list. One point into Manifestation and two into Will? That sounded good. 

I just swore I’d think things through and see all options before making decisions. Let’s see what Body has to offer.

***

[Body Attribute: 4] ( - )

• Desc: The Attribute governing the body. Increasing the Main Attribute increases constitution, the resistance to diseases, poisons, etc. 

Sub-attributes:

• Agility: 6

• Strength: 1

• Flexibility: 6

***

Yikes. What’s with that Strength stat, what the hell? Mia grimaced. Sure, she wasn’t the tallest girl around, and neither did she really train her upper body, but she had legs for days and the beginning of abs … if you squinted. Visible abs had always been just out of her reach. The best she got was two vertical curves on her stomach in the vague shape of muscles.

Anyway! That Strength stat was still weird and deserved further investigation!

***

Agility: Builds lean muscles fit for speed and fast reflexes.

Strength: Builds muscle mass focusing on pure power.

Flexibility: Dexterity, flexibility. Muscles loosen up, tendons, ligaments, and joints stretch and bend farther.

***

“Huh, I guess that’s cool, then?” She squinted at it. “But if the main attribute is the average, won’t I have to raise that abysmal Strength stat even if I couldn’t care less about muscle mass?”

Mia eyed the main Body attribute’s description again. It was a stat worth raising, more than most. It was the stat that kept her alive. She didn’t see any HP bars anywhere yet, but if there were some, she would bet both of her kidneys that they were linked to the body stat.

Plus, just not getting whatever super virus those stinky goblins must have been carrying made it worth it. Hell, an entire new slew of magical monsters with magical diseases were running up and down the streets and that Body stat was likely the only thing keeping her safe from those.

Mia closed all system windows and closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of sinking into the fluffy mattress for a moment. It was time to make a decision. Then she would have to explore the rest of the system interface. 

If nothing else, it would be a nice distraction while she had to stay in bed.

***

Cognity: The speed at which thoughts flow. The speed of the mind. Increases the amount of sensory data the User can handle.

***

That stat needed to go up and fast.