Chapter 7: Mana Sight and Faster Flight

  A savannah stretches out in front of me, a seemingly endless expanse of brown dirt, long yellow grass, and sparse flat topped trees. The sun (one sun, this time) is high in the sky and a familiar yellow. A small herd of what look like gazelle graze nearby, and I think I see some elephants in the distance. Am I… home?

  “Well slap my nuts and call me Daisy! Why are you naked? You some kinda pervert?”

  With a start, I turn around, searching for the source of the thick southern drawl that rang out from behind me, and find myself face to face with what looks like a normal human fella. He’s a white guy, taller than me, about 6’ 2”, and he wears a wide brimmed hat. He carries a hunting rifle over one shoulder. His clothes are a button up shirt, tan, and cargo shorts, also tan. From the wrinkles on his face, I’d place him in his early 50s. Quickly, I [Inspect] him.

  Pembleton the Hunter Lvl. 15

  I turn to face him and put my hands up to show I’m not a threat.

  “No sir, no pervert here. Accidentally punched my clothes into oblivion I’m afraid. Sorry if this question is a little strange, but… is this earth? If it is, what year is it?”

  He raises an eyebrow at me.

  “You punched your clothes? Y’know what, I’m gonna stop myself right there, I don’t care. I got some spare clothes in my trunk I suppose. Might be a bit big, but they shouldn’t fall off. My name’s Pembleton by the way, but I suppose your little [Inspect] told you that. As for your question, kind of? This is the third floor of a tutorial world, which means that it is a pocket dimension of sorts that replicates an environment from somewhere in the universe. The environment this floor is replicating is one from Earth, but it only extends a few miles in radius, so you won’t be able to go anywhere, and nothing you do here will affect earth in the real world.”

  Ok, that’s… a lot of information all at once, force fed to me in a southern drawl. Which writer got lazy and info dumped?

  “Wait, so are you real then?”

  “Again, kinda,” as he talks, Pembleton walks to the back of a large tan jeep and begins rooting around in some bags. “I was a real guy, a proud rancher in the good ol’ US of A, and when the system hit, I was out with the horses. A portal opened up directly where I was standing and cut me right in half. Thought I was dead and headed to the pearly gates, but as I was floating out of my body I got a system message asking if I wanted to work a job for it ‘stead of dying. I think the damn thing felt bad for me. Hah! Anyway, said yes, and it’s been popping me into challenge dungeons, treasure hunts, stuff like that. Even worked as a shop keeper for a bit. This is my first tutorial though. Die, resurrect, new job, repeat. Ain’t a perfect life, but I can’t complain. Better than being dead for good.”

  “Wow, you are being incredibly helpful answering all these questions! I really appreciate it. You aren’t going to betray and try to kill me are you?”

  “Ah, right, just came from floor 2 didn’t ya? Heard some nasty things ‘bout it. Floor 2 is the deception floor, but floor 3 is all about the hunt. So no, got no plans to betray you, I’m just here to point you in the right direction, answer questions, confirm your kills, and give tips.”

  “Keep your tip to yourself, thanks. You’re a lovely man but I JUST had a breakup so I’m not looking for anyone new.” Pembleton just looks at me, annoyed, and mutters to himself, “If you’re always like this, no wonder you broke up.”

  “HEY! I HEARD THAT! Anyway, you’re supposed to point me at something? Also, why can’t system messages tell me all this stuff?”

  “I don’t know man, maybe the system doesn’t like you. Or more likely, it has better things to do. Besides, it can’t just leave me doing nothing, floating in the void, now can it?”

  “That makes zero sense but whatever. Anyway, direction. Point. Now.”

  Pembleton just looks at me and raises an eyebrow.

  “...please?”

  He sighs. At this point he gives me a tan shirt, tan cargo shorts, tan socks, tan boots, and… red heart boxers? Eh, whatever, I start putting them on.

  “Ok, floor 3, hunting floor. I’ll give you a creature to hunt down on the floor, and you get penalized for killing things that aren’t your target. Once you kill it, bring it back to me, and I’ll give you your next target. Get done quickly, and your next target is harder but more rewarding. Take your sweet time, don’t get a dime. Eventually, when I think you’re ready, your target will be the floor boss, and you’ll be able to leave. Make sense?”

  Now that I’m actually clothed, I do some stretches and simple movements to make sure the clothes aren’t so loose as to randomly slip off. As I do, I continue talking.

  “Sure, makes sense. Still, I have to ask, is there a way to speed this up? I don’t mean to sound arrogant but uh, I think I can handle everything on this floor pretty easily, and most things probably won’t even give me exp.”

  He looks at me appraisingly.

  “Level 22 huh? Sure I can see how you’d think that. Fine, if you’re so confident, I can start you off on something difficult. But don’t come crying to me if you can’t handle it.”

  “Well that’s ominous. Come on though, isn’t this the very easy tutorial? I’d bet the strongest thing on this floor hits like a malnourished teddy bear.”

  Pembleton rolls his eyes. “Kid, if there’s one thing I know about the system, it’s that there’s always a bigger fish. I guarantee you aren’t nearly as strong as you think you are.”

  “Oh yeah? Wanna bet? Wanna teach this kid some wisdom? Or are you afraid it’s you who’ll be taken to school?”

  Pembleton grins. “I’m listening youngen. What’s the bet?”

  “Make my first target the strongest thing on the floor. I assume it’s the hidden boss. I’ll kill it and bring its corpse back within an hour. If I can’t, I’ll lick your boots and bow down to your infinite wisdom. If I can, the next target is the floor boss and I can stop wasting time and move on. Whaddaya say old timer?”

  Pembleton strokes his chin (he is clean shaven, so fuck if I know what he’s doing). “You know what kid? You’ve got yourself a bet. I’m gonna enjoy the look on your face when you see what it is you just signed up for.”

  I begin rubbing my hands together in excitement. “Ok! Now we’re talking! Oh, by the way, why do some monsters disappear into gold particles when I kill them and some don’t?”

  “Has to do with how they came to exist. Creatures made entirely by the system return to the system when they die. Creatures like me who are taken from the real world and made into system monsters, they leave a corpse. Since everything on this floor is from earth, you shouldn’t be running into any gold particles here.”

  “Huh. Good to know. Ok, so… what’s the big fish?”

  “Hehehe, I’m glad you asked! Ooo-whee, she’s a scary one. The most prolific killer world. Kills more humans than humans do! She has a bite so dangerous it’s killed millions over the years, and FUCK the bitch is annoying. It’s a mosquito. You have to hunt down a magical mosquito. Her system name is [Mosquito Mana Matriarch] or some such thing. Anyway, I think you get the gist. Small needle, big haystack. Your one hour starts now. Happy hunting partner.” He pulls out a stopwatch from the jeep and clicks it, then gives it to me.

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  “Thanks, Pemby! See you soon!” I launch into the air. As I do, I hear Pembleton’s amazed voice from the ground behind me.

  “Well lick my sack and sniff my crack, I must be seeing things! How in the hell can a level 22 fly like that?”

  You may be asking how in the fuck am I, dumbass that I am, gonna track down a specific mosquito? Well my friend, the answer is simple. It’s all in the name. [Mosquito Mana Matriarch] is what Pembleton called it, and if there is one thing I can find solutions for, it’s mana bullshit. Specifically, I’m thinking of another staple in the magical stories that I used to so devour: Mana Sight. After all, if I can see mana, this mosquito should shine like a fucking spotlight. I already have a pretty good feel for the stuff in my general vicinity, so I can’t imagine it will be too hard to figure out seeing the stuff as well. I grab some mana and well it up behind my eyes, hoping for the reaction that I want. Nothing happens other than my eyes start to hurt. Ok, maybe I need to make like mana sunglasses or something. I grab some mana and put it in front of my eyes. The world gets tinged blue, and for a second I think I’ve got it, but I quickly realize that I just made actual sunglasses, and the rest of the world’s mana is still invisible. Huh. This is harder than I thought it would be. Still, it hasn’t been more than a couple minutes since the timer started, so I have plenty of time.

  Oh god oh fuck I have like 10 minutes left and nothing I’ve tried has worked. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK! Ok. Ok. Breath. Stop spiraling. Worst case scenario here is we gotta lick some dusty boots and beating the floor will take a little longer. I’m gonna be fine. Still, I want to figure this out, timer or no timer. Maybe I’m thinking about this wrong. Maybe I can’t use mana to see mana, cause it’s like using a hose to find where the water is. How do I sense mana now? I close my eyes and summon a ball of mana above my hand. Yeah, I can definitely feel it there. Even if I move it around in the air, I can feel it. It’s like… it’s like knowing where my hand is with my eyes closed. I just feel where it is ‘cause it’s attached to me. But that doesn’t help me find mana that isn’t from my mana pool, right? Unless… ok, this might be stupid or this might be the solution. Keeping my eyes closed, I descend into my mana ocean. I can feel some sort of membrane around it keeping it within myself, some sort of shell that renders my mana as… well mine. Within myself, I reach out and touch this membrane, and gently, gently, pull at it. Just a little bit, not enough to rip a hole, but enough to thin it in a couple places. Taking those bits I pull them up to my eyes, and with every fiber of my focus, I attach them not to my face or behind or in front of my eyes, but to my sight itself. I focus on attaching them to the process of finding and receiving optical information, rather than any one part, and with my fists clenched in trepidation, I open my eyes.

  “Holy shit. It’s beautiful.”

  I stand in a kaleidoscope of colors, of every shade and clarity. These colors move in waves and cyclones and spirals and loops, but never in lines. They weave in and out and through and over each other, blending and separating in an endless cycle of waking dreams and vibrant miracles. Through it all, the world shines through as if through a stained glass window, the grass and trees still visible, but drenched in this storm of color. I look down at myself and see a brightly shining swirling cyclone of color, pulling in streams of mana from all around, absorbing them into a white center as bright as a star, yet somehow not hurting my eyes, and releasing them in turn, my ocean of mana a constant churning cog of a world full to bursting with mana. I summon a ball of mana above my hand, and I see a twisting river of mana leave my swirling mana core, and coalesce into a placid ball above my hand. Under the focus and control of my mind, the stagnant ball of mana seems out of place; a floating rock in the middle of a lake. Curious, I dismiss the ball of mana and (being exceedingly careful not to get anywhere near it) I summon a ball of mana flame. Above my hand, the color drains into an inky void. A ravenous ball of gluttony pulls the color from the world around it like a whirlpool dragging struggling swimmers into the depth of the dark. Immediately I dismiss it. Holy fuck. That’s a mana black hole! Suddenly, my already healthy fear of mana flame grows significantly deeper as I ponder the terrifying prospect of it going out of control and plunging the world back into mundanity, one burning victim at a time. I shudder, but then I suddenly shout.

  “OH SHIT! THE MOSQUITO!”

  I have only about 5 minutes left, so I begin to fly around, using my new mana sight to see if I can spot another bright spot like my own. FUCK! I’M FLYING SO GOD DAMN SLOW! Thinking fast, I focus on creating a layer of mana that coats my skin, and using as much willpower as I can, I make the mana essentially a perfect dispersal layer for small particles. Basically, the problem with going incredibly fast is that I crash into all the air particles and smash them into each other. This layer of mana will hopefully disperse the air around me in a much more gentle and fluid way to prevent the fusion reaction from occurring. Gingerly, I fly a couple miles into the sky and wave my hand as fast as I can.With a sigh of relief, I note that I am not the center of another atomic explosion. Only a minute left, so as a wise hedgehog once said: GOTTA GO FAST! I grin, and with a rapid succession of sonic booms, I take off. Following a grid pattern I sweep across the dungeon floor, and within 30 seconds (during which I swept over most of the floor), I spot a small but bright spot flitting around the tail of a baby elephant. TARGET ACQUIRED BABY! With less than 45 seconds to go before my hour is up, I don’t waste time. I shoot down, crush the mosquito with telekinesis, say a silent apology to the elephants for the sonic booms hurting their ears, and zoom back to Pembleton. I stop in front of him, hand outstretched, the corpse of the [Mosquito Mana Matriarch] lying in the palm of my hand.

  “Pembleton! I got the mosquito!”

  “JESUS, MARRY, AND JOSEPH!” Pembleton jumps about 40 feet into the air, and comes down with a resounding crash. “SMACK ME SILLY AND SUCK MY WILLY! BOY, WHERE ON GOD’S GREEN EARTH DID YOU COME FROM!”

  “Uhhhhh. That direction... I think,” I say, pointing behind me. “Anyway confirm my kill and tell me the name of the dungeon boss, time’s a wastin’, clock’s a tickin’, chop chop, roll out, and all that nonsense!”

  “Hold on just one god damn minute kid! You can’t scare the bejeezus out of a man and then expect him to immediately recover.” Pembleton breathes heavily in and out a couple of times. “Anyway, what in the hell was that? I don’t know of any class that lets a fella teleport at anywhere near this level!”

  “What are you, a cop? I don’t have to tell you shit.”

  He sighs. “Fine, let me take a look,” he says, pulling out a pair of reading glasses and looking closely at the dead mosquito in my hand. “Well I’ll be. It really is the damn thing. I really didn’t think you had it in you. This little bugger is supposed to be tough. Even taking most of an hour to kill it is quite impressive. Don’t know how you found it so fast though.”

  “Ah yes. The fight took me most of the hour. Finding it was a piece of cake really. Not even worth mentioning for a man such as myself.” I surreptitiously wipe a couple drops of sweat from my forehead.

  “It sure was tough. And its attacks were… uh… aggressive. Its mana was also quite um… magical.”

  Luckily, it doesn’t seem like Pembleton is paying much attention to what I’m saying. Instead, he has pulled out a small ornate box from the truck, and carefully plucks the mosquito from my hand, placing it in the box and closing it. The carvings on the box briefly light up, then go dark. Pembleton nods, and hands me the box.

  “What am I supposed to do with this? I’m not a lepidopterist.”

  “First of all, lepidopterists are just butterflies and moths, and secondly, open it.”

  Shrugging, I open the box, and to my surprise, instead of a dead mosquito looking back at me, there is a plain silver ring.

  “Oh my god are you proposing? Yes, a thousand times yes! Oh I bet I’ll look so good in a wedding dress.”

  Pembleton just rolls his eyes and takes his stopwatch back.

  “You gonna inspect the thing or are you waiting for permission?”

  Honestly, I didn’t know I could inspect items, but it makes sense. I look down and focus on the ring.

  “Hey Pembleton, I haven’t run into any equipment that isn’t unique. Granted, I’ve only seen two pieces of equipment, but surely unique items aren’t more common than items that are one of many, so what gives?”

  “It’s ‘cause it’s the tutorial kid. Everybody has a unique tutorial and so a lot of equipment that the system made for each tutorial is unique. Unique items are significantly rarer outside.”

  “Huh, good to know. So I guess that means I won’t be comparing notes with anyone about this bullshit mosquito.”

  “No, I suppose not. Still, bullshit it may be, but that clearly didn’t stop ya now did it?”

  I shrug and put on the ring.

  “Fine, next order of business then, floor boss. I’ve got some good news and some bad news. Good news is, you don’t have to go looking, I can just tell you where the damn thing is. Bad news, it ain’t gonna be easy to get there. The floor boss is called [Gerald the Hippo King], and he’s a mean son of a gun. He hangs out in an oasis that I’ll have to take you to in the truck. It won’t have been accessible by other means since the system didn’t want you killing the boss early off a chance encounter. Fair warning, there is usually a fairly large gathering of other animals around the oasis, as it’s one of the few sources of water in the area. Since the hunting part is over, you won’t be penalized for killing unrelated animals, but it would be a bit of a dick move if you can avoid it. Now, hop in the truck, I’ll answer any questions on the way.”