John came back to consciousness slowly, and then all at once, like a river that had been eroding a dam and suddenly burst through. He took a moment to assess his body, wriggling his toes and fingers, flexing his joints, rolling his ankles, wrists, neck, but there was nothing untoward to report on that front.

  After all the exertion of the last few days, it almost felt wrong to find himself in such good shape. There wasn’t a single bruise on his body. Not a hint of an ache.

  Still, he lay there for a while once he’d confirmed his condition, doing nothing, not even really thinking. Just as it had in the mansion, Rest had afforded him a short time to vent his frustrations without the scrutiny of the Aura system. Except this time, he hadn’t felt like it. Instead, he’d just cross-legged on the ground in that empty void, rested his elbows on his knees, cupped his chin in his hands, and waited for it to end.

  It wasn’t that he had no frustration to vent. The state of the world still stoked a righteous fury in him that threatened to engulf him if he wasn’t careful.

  But there was more to sleep than just resting, in his estimation. It was a transition between states, taking you from one day to the next in a sort of time skip. You closed your eyes, had a weird dream, then woke up eight-ish hours later as a new person, leaving the past behind.

  Except the clock on the wall showed a mere thirty minutes had passed since he activated Rest. The sleep he’d gotten was more rejuvenating than any he’d ever had. He felt fresh as a daisy. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind that he could jump to his feet right now and run a marathon. His thoughts didn’t feel sluggish in the slightest.

  And yet, somehow it felt viscerally wrong. His consciousness had continued all the way through the so-called Rest. Part of him had been hoping he’d be able to just completely switch off, let his burdens drift away for a short time.

  I’ll have to sleep for real in the future, he thought with a sigh as he swung his legs off the bed and sat up. I’m sure the chance will arise eventually.

  Pausing to listen, he could hear activity in the house, footsteps creaking across floorboards and hushed voices in discussion. There was even the faint sound of a dove cooing.

  After leaving the portal, the rest had followed him when he made his way to a nearby house—a simple two-story semi-detached affair just around the corner from the depot, with three bedrooms. John had wordlessly claimed one of the bedrooms, thrown himself onto the bed, and activated Rest without any hesitation. It was a spartan thing, little more than a single bed in terms of furniture. Probably a guest room, before the world ended.

  A couple of monsters had accosted them on the way, but nothing difficult to handle. With Accelerate making him too fast for them to handle, his trusty old Mana Blade had parted their flesh with ease, though at this point he was starting to genuinely feel killing blues wasn’t worth his time. It sounded like nothing had disturbed their hideout in the last half an hour, either.

  Honestly, part of him was surprised the others were still here. The logical side of his brain insisted that they would obviously come to the conclusion it was best to stick with someone stronger than them for protection. But there was always a little part of him that he didn’t think he’d ever be able to shut off, a mind-gremlin born from a lifetime of failing to interact with other human beings without causing mishaps, unless they were just as hopeless as him.

  Hell, maybe some of them had left. He was in no mood to confirm anything right now, though. Another trouble with the Rest ability was it hadn’t recharged his social battery in the slightest. The past day or two had involved constant socialising. He felt wrung out.

  So instead of going to check, he instead turned his attention to the Aura system. He had a disgusting amount of Aura built up after his exploits in the portal world, and there were some things he hadn’t had a chance to explore in depth. Time to have a look at what he could do with it.

  Increase Vitality Level 7 -> Level 8: 12800

  Increase Strength Level 7 -> Level 8: 12800

  Increase Agility Level 7 -> Level 8: 12800

  Increase Mind Level 6 -> Level 7: 6400

  Increase Arcane Level 6 -> Level 7: 6400

  Increase Talent Level 6 -> Level 7: 6400

  Upgrade Sparks Level 0 -> Level 1: 500 Aura

  Upgrade Purify Water Level 0 -> Level 1: 500 Aura

  Level 2 Spells:

  Ice Grasp: 1000 Aura

  Illusory Clone: 1000 Aura

  Astral Projection: 1000 Aura

  Phantom Hand: 1000 Aura

  Upgrade Mana Blade Level 2 -> Level 3: 2000 Aura

  Upgrade Rest Level 2 -> Level 3: 2000 Aura

  Upgrade Force Pull Level 2 -> Level 3: 2000 Aura

  Upgrade Earthen Armour Level 2 -> Level 3: 2000 Aura

  Level 3 Spells:

  Ice Breath: 2000 Aura

  Steel Skin: 2000 Aura

  Air Bubble: 2000 Aura

  Animate Blood: 2000 Aura

  Dominate: 2000 Aura

  Upgrade Mana Sense Level 3 -> Level 4: 4000 Aura

  Upgrade Soul Vision Level 3 -> Level 4: 4000 Aura

  Level 4 Spells:

  Pyroclastic Lance: 4000 Aura

  Tempest Sphere: 4000 Aura

  Voltaic Chain: 4000 Aura

  Earth Wave: 4000 Aura

  Gravity Snare: 4000 Aura

  Levitate Object: 4000 Aura

  Orbital Well: 4000 Aura

  Mass Manipulation: 4000 Aura

  Upgrade Fireball Level 4 -> Level 5: 8000 Aura

  Upgrade Heat Vision Level 4 -> Level 5: 8000 Aura

  Upgrade Wind Shear Level 4 -> Level 5: 8000 Aura

  Upgrade Force Push Level 4 -> Level 5: 8000 Aura

  Upgrade Shadow Stream Level 4 -> Level 5: 8000 Aura

  Upgrade Summon Undead Level 4 -> Level 5: 8000 Aura

  Level 5 Spells:

  Plasma Beam: 8000 Aura

  Tornado: 8000 Aura

  Meteor Strike: 8000 Aura

  Dragon Breath: 8000 Aura

  Winter Wolf: 8000 Aura

  Flame Falcon: 8000 Aura

  Grove Guardian: 8000 Aura

  Iron Lion: 8000 Aura

  Ghost Spider: 8000 Aura

  Upgrade Hydro Stream Level 5 -> Level 6: 16000 Aura

  Level 6 Spells:

  Pyromancy: 16000 Aura

  Hydromancy: 16000 Aura

  Geomancy: 16000 Aura

  Aeromancy: 16000 Aura

  Biomancy: 16000 Aura

  Dragon Wings: 16000 Aura

  Demon Claws: 16000 Aura

  Shinigami Eyes: 16000 Aura

  Basilisk Scales: 16000 Aura

  Phantom Form: 16000 Aura

  Current Aura: 33800

  John couldn’t decide whether to grin or wince at the current state of his Spells. On one hand, he had quite the versatile repertoire built up already, covering a lot of circumstances. On the other:

  Man, shit’s getting really expensive now, huh?

  The crazy 25000 Aura reward he’d received upon the collapse of the portal world, fighting off a red-souled monster in functionally single combat, wasn’t enough to cover a Level 7 Spell. And he now knew from experience that a Level 6 Spell wasn’t going to do the job against the highest echelon of monsters. Not unless he happened to come across a mega-monster that was weak to something he already had.

  That being said, he figured he was actually on the right track, with elemental bullet. Rather than having to swap through a bunch of different types of attack until finding the enemy’s weakness, why not use a versatile attack that threw as much at the monster as possible? The more aspects he added to the Spell, the higher the likelihood it would be deadly against all enemies.

  But there was always Aura to consider. Coolness factor. Defeating an enemy was only half the battle, as far as his system was concerned. It wanted him to look badass while doing it. The Ultimate Shot was pretty cool, in his opinion, but he needed a versatile tool set for more than just its battlefield effectiveness. Using the same attack over and over would quickly grow old. He needed to be able to keep the system on its toes.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Have to balance effectiveness, coolness, and novelty. Maybe aim for multiple versatile attacks? I have a projectile attack. Next on the agenda should probably be making my Mana Blade as badass as possible, too.

  Armour as well, while I’m at it. Range, melee, defence. And then… Minions. I have a shit ton of soul to work with, so I should put it to use. I could add more stuff to Summon Undead, or I could work with one of those Level 5 Spells that look to be about summoning. Either a wolf, a falcon, a lion, a spider, or a… guardian. Whatever that is.

  … and there are also Skills to consider. Shit, man, I’ve gone up two levels in Talent without finding time to check in on what that’s unlocked for me.

  Sighing in mild frustration, John tabbed over to his Skills menus.

  Level 0 Skills:

  Navigation: 200 Aura

  Forage: 200 Aura

  Build Fire: 200 Aura

  Find Water: 200 Aura

  Level 1 Skills:

  Increase Second Wind Level 1 -> Level 2

  Increase Limit Break Level 1 -> Level 2

  Increase Insight Level 1 -> Level 2

  Increase Suppress Soul Level 1 -> Level 2

  Level 2 Skills:

  Athlete: 1000 Aura

  Thief: 1000 Aura

  Engineer: 1000 Aura

  Rider: 1000 Aura

  Ventriloquist: 1000 Aura

  Increase Inhuman Stamina Level 2 -> Level 3: 2000 Aura

  Increase Iron Fist Level 2 -> Level 3: 2000 Aura

  Increase Eagle Eye Level 2 -> Level 3: 2000 Aura

  Increase Danger Sense Level 2 -> Level 3: 2000 Aura

  Increase Ninja Level 2 -> Level 3: 2000 Aura

  Increase Marksman Level 2 -> Level 3: 2000 Aura

  Increase Duelist Level 2 -> Level 3: 2000 Aura

  Increase Grappler Level 2 -> Level 3: 2000 Aura

  Increase Striker Level 2 -> Level 3: 2000 Aura

  Level 3 Skills:

  Hypnotist: 2000 Aura

  Tamer: 2000 Aura

  Bookworm: 2000 Aura

  Polyglot: 2000 Aura

  Druid: 2000 Aura

  Upgrade Titan Tendons Level 3 -> Level 4: 4000 Aura

  Upgrade Unstoppable Charge Level 3 -> Level 4: 4000 Aura

  Upgrade Catfall Level 3 -> Level 4: 4000 Aura

  Upgrade Intuition Level 3 -> Level 4: 4000 Aura

  Upgrade Speed Casting Level 3 -> Level 4: 4000 Aura

  Level 4 Skills:

  Ranger: 4000 Aura

  Medic: 4000 Aura

  Detective: 4000 Aura

  Commander: 4000 Aura

  Calculator: 4000 Aura

  Upgrade Accelerate Level 4 -> Level 5: 8000 Aura

  Upgrade Flash Step Level 4 -> Level 5: 8000 Aura

  Upgrade Air Step Level 4 -> Level 5: 8000 Aura

  Upgrade Thread Walker Level 4 -> Level 5: 8000 Aura

  Upgrade Precognition Level 4 -> Level 5: 8000 Aura

  Level 5 Skills:

  Meditate: 8000 Aura

  Intimidate: 8000 Aura

  Dodge: 8000 Aura

  Memorize: 8000 Aura

  Charge: 8000 Aura

  Pyromaniac: 8000 Aura

  Hydro Homie: 8000 Aura

  Rock Star: 8000 Aura

  Airhead: 8000 Aura

  Stoic: 8000 Aura

  Upgrade First Aid Level 5 -> Level 6: 16000 Aura

  Level 6 Skills:

  Inner Harmony: 16000 Aura

  Adamant Stance: 16000 Aura

  Atomic Slash: 16000 Aura

  Vector Calculation: 16000 Aura

  Sacrifice: 16000 Aura

  Speed Demon: 16000 Aura

  All Brawn: 16000 Aura

  Trick Shooter: 16000 Aura

  Magnificent Bastard: 16000 Aura

  Archmage: 16000 Aura

  That was… a lot to take in. Despite some of those impressive-sounding names, John found himself unenthused. To the point he struggled to muster the effort to speculate on them, right now. It wasn’t that there was nothing on the list that caught the eye, or struck him as something that would be useful.

  There was a pretty clear trend in how he’d been working with his Skills so far. Aside from the combat-based generalist Skills he’d unlocked at the very beginning, he’d pretty much entirely devoted his efforts to unlocking the more specialist Skills, and then… not used most of them all that much?

  He couldn’t keep his shoulders drooping a bit. Frankly, it all felt like a bit of a waste, and he had to stop himself from calculating how much Aura he’d spent there that could have gone into stats or better Spells. There was even stuff he’d forgotten about entirely in there. Had he used Iron Fist even once?

  For a little consolation: some of the higher level stuff had been huge. He didn’t know what he would’ve done without Flash Step and Air Step, for instance.

  The problem was, a lot of the Skills were kind of passive, and thus didn’t show up until he needed it—which brought the old adage to mind: better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

  Unfortunately, there was no way of knowing what he needed until it came up.

  Interesting to note that there’s no upgrade option for Combine. And come to think of it, I never got the chance to upgrade Dual Casting, either. Does that mean they’re both set how they are forever, with no chance of upgrading?

  All that in mind, he decided to hold off on the Level 5 and 6 stuff for now.

  John rose to his feet, pacing back and forth as he thought. Catching sight of himself in the small bedroom’s mirror alerted him to the fact that he was still wearing the red leather jacket he’d pilfered from some random house what felt like a lifetime ago. It was looking… worse for wear. Though it had done a lot better than the shredded shirt and the frayed trousers, it was covered in scuffs and tears and stains. Hardly badass anymore.

  Thinking of clothes reminded him of extra depths his system had gained, which he hadn’t had the time to think too much about, since it was only recently that he’d gathered enough Aura to even purchase any of it. Delving into the Inventory menu, he brought up the other menus that were available.

  Unlock Outfits Menu: 10,000 Aura

  Unlock Armoury Menu: 20,000 Aura

  Unlock Crafting Menu: 25,000 Aura

  Unlock Market Menu: 50,000 Aura

  Unlock Alchemy Menu: 60,000 Aura

  Unlock Enchanting Menu: 75,000 Aura

  Unlock Portal World Menu: 100,000 Aura

  John paused a moment to consider. It went without saying that Market, Alchemy, Enchanting, and Portal World were off the table, though he still allowed himself a second to speculate on what each would be—Market was probably buying and selling, though what exactly would be bought and sold and with what currency was unknowable right now; his first thought on Alchemy was that it’d let him make potions and such; Enchanting was pretty obviously going to be about granting magical abilities to objects; Portal World, though, taking into account how much Aura it cost… a private portal sounded incredible, but it was a long way off. Not worth salivating over.

  Right now, he had to consider whether Outfits, Armour, or Crafting were worth the expenditure.

  Outfits implied the ability to save and store different clothing loadouts that he could switch with a thought. And potentially more. Maybe even things like repairing or customising his clothes were possible. Hard to say. It was the kind of menu that would really come in handy when he had a lot more outfits to work with, for example if he picked up a suit of armour like the one Jade had. Combined with the possibilities teased by the Enchanting menu, it’d be a huge boon.

  But that was in the future. The same, unfortunately, could be said for being able to, presumably, store and repair weapons with Armoury. He didn’t even use mundane weapons that much, right now. The fact that Crafting, Alchemy, Market, and Enchanting had their own separate menus led him to believe that Outfits and Armoury wouldn’t come with the ability to purchase or upgrade clothes and weapons respectively, so a part of him was inclined to think they were best left until later, despite their low cost compared to other menus.

  At the same time, he thought, staring at himself in the mirror, I do have to account for my current shabby outfit. I look like a hobo. Maybe the system likes a good unhinged murder hobo, but I can’t imagine that’d win me more points than looking utterly unphased by the apocalypse.

  Judging by the fact he’d frequently received Aura bonuses just for acting casual, early on, he reckoned there were more badass points to be won from being the ice-cold killer, rather than the screws-loose berserker archetype.

  Screw it. I have 33,000. I can take a 10,000 Aura hit just to see how this thing works.

  Outfits unlocked!

  -10000 Aura

  As usual, a haptic buzz thrummed through his brain, and a moment later there was a new tab added to the inventory menu. Switching over, he found about what he’d expected.

  There were seven sub-tabs, which he immediately suspected correlated to his Strength much like Inventory itself had. Six of them were marked [Empty], while one was [Equipped]. With a mental command, he opened up the Equipped tab, and found a menu much like the rest, with no visual representation of himself. There were just a lot of spaces for clothes in a list, most of them empty.

  HEAD:

  NECK:

  EYES: Repair Sunglasses: 200 Aura

  EAR LOBE 1:

  EAR LOBE 2:

  TORSO 1: Repair Red Leather Biker Jacket: 600 Aura

  TORSO 2: Repair White Shirt: 1200 Aura

  TORSO 3:

  TORSO 4:

  ARMS:

  WRIST 1:

  WRIST 2:

  HANDS:

  FINGER 1:

  FINGER 2:

  FINGER 3:

  FINGER 4:

  FINGER 5:

  FINGER 6:

  FINGER 7:

  FINGER 8:

  FINGER 9:

  FINGER 10:

  LEGS 1: Repair Black Riding Trousers: 1400 Aura

  LEGS 2: Repair White Boxer Shorts: 500 Aura

  FEET 1: Repair White Cotton Socks: 600 Aura

  FEET 2: Repair Motorcycle Boots: 1400 Aura

  ANKLE 1:

  ANKLE 2:

  John tilted his head, feeling a little blank. “Huh.”

  What he was seeing implied jewellery like rings, bracelets, earrings, and so on, were going to come into play at some point, whether eventually enchanted by himself or loot dropped by slain enemies. That was interesting.

  Figuring it was the only part of his outfit that couldn’t be easily replaced, he decided to spend 600 Aura to restore his jacket. The effect was instantaneous. There was no rush of magic, no threads knitting themselves whimsically back together. A blink, and the jacket was good as new, the leather shining like it had been polished. Giving a little twirl, he even saw that the black skull on the back had regained all its sequins.

  “Cool,” he muttered, and found he actually meant it. The jacket was growing on him. It had been with him through a bunch of tough times, and its coolness-modifying presence had surely gained him tens of thousands of extra Aura for very little effort. If he ignored the fact he’d stolen it from a dead person’s house, he could even dredge up some sentimental attachment to it.

  That thought stung his mood a bit. Sitting back on the bed with a sigh, John delved into his menus once more, determined to build himself a roadmap towards the badass future he needed to reach. Then, he’d go and deal with the others.

  Discord :)