All around stretched darkness, broken only by the pale glow of his office complex—an odd donut-shaped structure with a reactor at its heart casting light into the night. A few nearby buildings shared in that glow, but beyond them, the world was swallowed whole by shadow, broken only by the occasional flare of gunfire from the robots below. David sat back, laptop beside him, eyes fixed on the void beyond the walls. He already understood no one would let him sleep—fortunately, he had [sleep resistance].
The robots below tore into the floating creatures. Newly reprogrammed, they weren’t perfect—some monsters slipped through the barrage, jerking erratically through the air. That was when David raised his hunting rifle, bracing against the rooftop ledge. The weapon had enough punch to pierce their hides, and one by one he dropped those that escaped the machines’ aim.
After a few minutes of steady shooting, he paused, lowering the rifle to consider his next move. The view from the roof gave him a clear advantage, both in defense and in harvesting. He tapped a command into his laptop, sending new instructions to the robots. Soon they were dragging the growing pile of crystal cores up to the rooftop and depositing them near his improvised watch station. From there, each new kill’s core could be added to the stack, within arm’s reach.
Whenever the monsters thinned out and his hands were idle, David picked up one of the glowing cores and crushed its essence into himself, absorbing the mana.
He glanced at the half-empty bag of rifle rounds beside him and muttered under his breath. Damn. Time to fetch more ammo. Then he frowned. Why am I even worrying? His gaze drifted toward the mound of monster cores piled beside his chair. Building up his magical core tonight was out of the question—the monsters weren’t about to grant him the luxury of uninterrupted focus. So why bother pretending?
He set the rifle down and turned his attention back to the night sky, spotting another balloon-like flyer drifting into range. Shadow coiled at his fingertips as he summoned a spear of darkness. This time something strange happened. There were no distinct shadows to draw from—the rooftop was drowned in darkness—yet power still surged into his weapon, not from any single source but from the very night around him.
David blinked in surprise, then grinned.
“Whoa. Did I just stumble onto the cheat code for infinite ammo?”
He glanced at his mana reserves. The spear had barely dented them. Laughing softly, he launched it into the target. The dark lance tore through the monster, and it collapsed with a wheeze, plummeting like a punctured balloon.
David exhaled, amusement curling at the edges of his voice.
“Alright. I’m definitely going to have to learn the Law of Light sooner or later… Just… probably not in the middle of the night.”
Riding the rush of his discovery, David kept hurling spears of shadow into the dark. At some point his hands blurred, and he only realized what had happened when he glanced down—two lances, one in each hand, crackling with power.
[Ability Unlocked]
“…What?” He blinked, fumbling open his status. Nestled between his skills was something new:
[Multicast Lvl.1]
A grin split his face. “Well, that’s a pleasant surprise.”
He tested it immediately, loosing twin volleys of darkness into the swarm. The effort felt lighter, smoother, as though the system itself were lending a hand. Emboldened, he tried mixing it up—lightning sparking in one palm, shadow in the other—and hurled both. It was clumsy, uneven, but the night sky still lit up as the blasts tore through their targets.
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[Multicast 1→2]
David laughed aloud “Ha! At this rate I’ll be an Archmage before sunrise!”
His good mood didn’t last long. From the treeline, new shapes emerged—panthers again? He narrowed his eyes. “Alright, so the dogs weren’t unique with their multiple sizes after all. Some sort of new sub-species?” For a moment he considered another possibility. Maybe they were male and female variants? But then he shook his head. None of the monsters the system had thrown at him had ever shown sexual characteristics. No, they were clones, churned out like disposable soldiers.
But this new beast wasn’t like the panthers he had fought before. It was massive. And unlike its stealthy kin, it didn’t bother creeping through the underbrush. It charged directly, tearing across the open ground with terrifying confidence. Its shield shimmered visibly even to the naked eye, sparking with every impact as David’s perimeter robots poured fire into it. The panther didn’t flinch. Bullets were useless. Its gaze locked on him, burning with mindless aggression as it closed the distance.
By the time it reached the edge of the perimeter, David knew it wasn’t going to slow down. He exhaled. “Alright then,” he muttered. “My turn.”
He unleashed spear after spear of darkness, his newfound endless reservoir pouring into one attack after another. Each projectile slammed against the panther’s shield, flaring with sparks as though steel scraped steel. The black lances didn’t pierce; instead, they smeared across the barrier like spilled oil, sizzling faintly before evaporating into nothing.
The monster didn’t falter. It barreled forward, shrugging off the storm of magic as though David were throwing pebbles. Ten seconds—maybe less—and it had already closed most of the distance to the building. He could see its burning eyes fixed on him.
“Damn it,” David muttered, stepping back toward the center of the rooftop. “Time for the heavy artillery.”
He tightened his grip, drawing mana into his core, preparing to call on Overcharge.
David decided against using the Law of Darkness this time. Sure, the night was thick with shadows, but hitting a darting panther with a massive blob of raw darkness was easier said than done. The beast was fast—too fast—and he didn’t want to gamble. Lightning, however, left little room for evasions.
He crushed a pair of crystals in his palm, sparks of mana bleeding into him, setting the stage. Then he triggered Overcharge. Power surged, and his arms snapped forward. What erupted was no ordinary lightning bolt—it was a condensed stream, a plasma-laser thunderstrike that tore through the night.
The panther had already coiled, muscles taut as it leapt for the roof. It never made it. The beam caught it mid-air, slamming the creature back to the ground and grinding it into the asphalt with sheer force. A shallow crater blossomed where it hit. For five long seconds David held the line, his mana bleeding away at an alarming pace—twenty percent gone in the blink of an eye. The shield finally ruptured, and the panther dissolved into nothing, disintegrated by the fury of his strike.
David was already shifting his aim, ready to swing the torrent elsewhere—he couldn’t just shut Overcharge off—when he felt it. A ripple of movement at the edge of his vision.
A second panther.
It came from behind, leaping like a black bullet. David twisted, barely ninety degrees, just enough. The beam seared through the roof, carving off a corner of the building in a cascade of molten concrete. That misstep saved his life. The panther’s claws raked his chest, but the blast of his own power, acting like recoil, shoved him backward, ripping him from his perch.
The night spun. The rooftop vanished. He was falling.
David’s current status:
?f?a?l?l?i?n?g?
Name: David
Level: 11
Magical core: D-
Abilities:
- Sleep Resistance (Lvl. 8)
- Pain Resistance (Lvl. 1)
- Rage (Lvl. 1)
- Mana Perception (Lvl. 11)
- Overcharge (Lvl.1)
- Multicast (Lvl. 2)
Attributes:
- [Major Law of Electricity]
- [Minor Law of Fire]
- [Major Law of Ice]
- [Minor Law of Clay]
- [Minor Law of Water]
- [Major Law of Darkness]
- [Major Law of Steel]