The World Cataclysm - Chapter 66: Another Attempt

After giving pointers, Dave dismissed everyone yet still ended meeting them again in the kitchen. All of them were having breakfast there and since Sara was the only one who couldn’t fight among them, she was responsible for preparing breakfast and future meals. Dave decided to postpone dragging her outside to kill her first zombie because they still needed someone to deal with such stuff as cooking.

Furthermore, they already had enough people who were capable of killing zombies. Also, if they joined hands with survivors in the supermarket, their numbers would be enough to form a small club according to the rules of their university, which required to have twenty potential club members before forming a club.

After having breakfast, Dave picked a new room for himself, on the door of which he stuck a note “Do not disturb!”, and entered it. He had already decided to move to a new room since he didn’t want to be accidentally disturbed by others as in the case with deep meditation.

First of all, he decided to rest after a spar as he started meditating. It already became his habit to meditate while he was resting…plus, meditation didn’t tire his body, so he didn’t find anything wrong with it.

Although he actually easily won in a spar, he still used lots of other skills. As his mana reserves doubled, he could use his skills much freely, and he had done so during the fight, trying to analyze his abilities at the same time. He had also used Flash Step plenty of times to evade attacks, which depleted his stamina quite a lot.

‘Status’

[David Murckly

Level: 7

Survival coins: 268

Class: None

Mana: 36/58

Strength: 18 (+1)

Agility: 16 (+1)

Stamina: 11

Intelligence: 11

Spirit: 7 (+1)

Free points: 0

Innate ability: Regression

Skills: Elementary Cooking (LVL 2), Gaming (LVL 8), Mathematics (LVL 7), Leadership (LVL 1), Meditation (LVL 3), Flash Step (LVL 1), Mana Application (LVL 4), Mana Threads (LVL 4), Mana Barrier (LVL 2), Mana Enhancement (LVL 2), Reinforced Breathing (LVL 2), Swordsmanship (LVL 5), Battle Focus (LVL 4), Mana Sensing (LVL 2)]

Looking at his Status Window, Dave focused his attention on the mana he had used during the spar and was satisfied with the results. Although he had formed plenty of mana barriers to defend against small fireballs and light blades, it only cost him 22 points of mana. Furthermore, he won’t be as carefree in a fight as he was in a spar since every point of mana was important in a real battle.

Meditating, he was able to partially fill his mana reserves and decided to stop at it. He still wanted to check a space he had detected in deep meditation since its existence had sparked an interest in his innate ability.

Obviously, Regression was the reason he had returned back in time, and it could transfer his experience from past skill to current ones. At least, he understood that much about his innate ability. But it also raised lots of questions in his mind.

Just how does his ability work? Did it return his soul back in time? But if that was the case, his intelligence and spirit stats would have been the same as in his past life. Then, did it only involve his memories?

What about the runes he had seen in the dark space? They were oddly the same as his skills from the past that System forms in one’s mind when an Enhancer decides to learn a skill with the help of a System. Therefore, considering the nature of Regression, Dave suspected that they were his skills from the past. Of course, it was the case if that dark space was related to Regression. However, bubbles of memories floating there made Dave confident in his conclusions.

But the most important question was…Could he use them? Just the thought of using them made his heart beat faster. Also, they couldn’t just be there in the role of decorations…Right? Dave suspected there was a way to use them, and he just didn’t found it yet. So, Dave decided to probe that dark space another time.

Concentrating on the particular location in his brain, Dave was able to get there after a minute of trying. However, this time, Dave felt a strong pressure on his mind, pushing his soul projection out of the space. Not only was it hard to endure, but the pushing force also kept increasing with every passing second. He should haven’t sensed it due to miraculous effects a deep meditation had on his soul.

Noticing the trail of bubbles, Dave didn’t even glance at them, since he had already done it before, and headed to the location of glowing runes as he resisted the force pushing his projection. Steadily, he flew towards the runes, trying to ignore the pushing force. And yes, he was flying towards the runes since there was no ground to step…just a dark and empty space. Moreover, he didn’t need any platform to walk because space was more mental than a real one.

After a short while, Dave caught a glimpse of runes from the distance. As he was nearing them, he only now understood how big those runes were. They didn’t seem big from the distance, but they were gigantic from the close proximity.

There were six of the runes as well as six skills he had learned with the help of a System. He learned them in order of Muscle Expansion, Enhanced Five Senses, Body Acceleration, Mana Slash, Second Breath and the last one, Sixth Sense.

As far as he knew, skills were divided into mastery skills or techniques, combat skills and skills that couldn’t be categorized into any of them. Skills like Mana Application, Mana Sensing, Mana Threads and Swordsmanship were categorized into mastery skills, and they usually had a level cap of ten and could advance higher in grade.

Flash Step and Mana Barrier were examples of combat skills, and they had a maximum level of three. Unlike mastery skills, combat skills couldn’t simply advance in grade; either you buy a new skill higher in grade or learn a new skill all by yourself.

Even their grading systems differed from each other. Mastery skills followed a grading system of Basic, Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary. Higher the grade, better were skills. On the other hand, combat skills were divided into Iron, Bronze, Silver and Gold grades.

With every grade, a price one needed to pay to learn it also increased. Bronze grade skill cost higher than Iron grade in terms of learning it and levelling it up. The same could be said about mastery skills.

Looking at four iron and two bronze runes, Dave couldn’t help but remember how much did he suffer to get Skill Books of that skills. Gold and Silver grade skills were pretty mythical for him, and among other hunters, he heard only one or two of them having Silver grade skills.

Glancing at one of the iron runes, Dave closely observed its surface as he noticed that though it was the only source of light in a dark space, its light was dull and weak like it was going to fade away at any moment.

‘Argh!’ Dave groaned slightly as pressure on him jumped rapidly. If before pushing force was rising gradually, it made a rapid jump in one moment as he felt like a heavy boulder was crushing him from above.

Understanding that he had little time till he got chased out of a dark space, Dave tried to go closer to one of the iron rune. As he flew closer to the first iron rune, his body started to produce light particles that were absorbed by an iron rune.

Staring at himself in confusion and tracking the route of the light particle, Dave looked at the iron rune in puzzlement, yet understanding that he had little time, he ignored them and flew closer to the rune, so close that he could reach it with his hand if he stretched his arm.

‘What is it absorbing? My mana? Or my spirit?’ Dave wondered inwardly as a bright light emitted from the place he was touching. It seemed as the rune was absorbing something from him, and through direct contact, it absorbed that thing much faster.

Staring at the surface of an iron rune, he noticed, even if it was only slightly, that it was getting slightly brighter as the rune’s surface shined slightly stronger from before. It changed from dull light to a slightly brighter one.

Having nothing to do in a dark space, Dave stood in front of the rune as he pressed his hand to it and tried to understand what result it’ll bring to him. It was the only reactions of runes, so he suspected it was a way for him to gain access to them.

‘Damn! Is it still not enough? I’m running out of time!’ Dave thought as he understood that he still had a long way to fully brighten it. At some point in time, he couldn’t bear the growing pressure anymore as he was pushed out of the dark space.

Opening his eyes in his room, Dave sighed due to lack of results. However, he was still able to make his own conclusions about that runes, so it couldn’t be said that his visit to a dark space was completely fruitless.

Checking his Status Window, Dave first checked his mana, and noticing that it didn’t change at all, he suspected that light particles leaving his body were somehow related to his spirit. On top of that, he felt mentally tired after leaving a dark space, so his spirit must be the case.

‘I should keep doing it every day,’ Dave thought. After one try, he could already feel that he couldn’t enter that space for today, or perhaps, he should call it Regressor’s Chamber. He still needed to experiment with it, yet he was dead tired after one attempt…like his soul was sucked out of him. Therefore, he decided to lie on the bed for a bit yet didn’t notice how he dozed off.