Chapter 6: Mana Attributes and Dark hours
Waking up from his nap, Sumit was now facing the ceiling. His body looked in a better shape than before now. His bleeding had stopped and he was now breathing quite steadily.
"I expected some collateral damage, but not to this extent.", Sumit sighed while standing up.
[Host, you should count yourself lucky. If you were not able to consume the potion, it would have been the end for both of us.]
"No, it was an oversight from me. I did not even think of the existence of the potion. So it would have been ideal if I did not receive injuries."
[Don't be too hard on yourself. It's extremely rare for a Lvl 1 to defeat a Lvl 6 creature without any skill use. That thing even had a Skill and you managed to beat it.]
"Not exactly. I mean that thing died from it's own skill." Sumit said as he walked towards the corpses or whatever was remaining of it.
There he picked up a shining orb.
"Now what was this again?" Sumit asked and a window appeared in front of his eyes.
[MANA ATTRIBUTE ORB: AN EPIC TIER ITEM
Description:- Mana is an energy that is present in every living s non living object. Depending on the environment or individual mana can change its nature.
This synthetic orb is a product of ultimate research carried out by a Grade 4 civilization.
Use the orb to awaken the dormant character of your mana.
Note:- Can only be used once in a lifetime.]
"Hmm.. I don't understand it completely, but whatever it is it seems to be beneficial." What do you say system?
[Though I am not knowledgeable about Grade 4 civilization, but I have a hunch that this would not harm you host.]
"Before that, show me my status screen." Sumit said.
[Sure host,
Name: Sumit Ahuja
Level 5: (0/1600)
HP: (100/190) +10 HP EVERY HOUR
Mana: 160/160
Race: Human
Rank: Recruit
Due to level up:
STR: 8>>16
AGI: 7>>15
VIT: 11>>19
END: 8>>16
INT: 8>>16
DEX: 10>>18
Luck: 6
Charm: 5
SKILLS: None
Free attribute points: 8]
"What..? I received a huge boost." After looking at his status Sumit was quite bewildered.
[Well, you defeated a very strong enemy and did so in the Dark hours, that's why you got so much exp.]
"Wait, what do you mean by dark hours?" Sumit asked the system.
[Host, everything in this world has a polar opposite. Be it electrons or protons , good or evil, Matter or anti-matter. Thus naturally mana also has a opposite force which is dark mana.
It's origins are concealed, but one thing is absolute that with the time period 3pm to 3 am, dark mana becomes exponentially stronger than mana.]
"So these hours are called dark hours?"
[Yes, you are right host. During this time the "Fallen" or those who rejected or were rejected by mana are stronger than their base strength.]
"Seems like some kind of endgame type of lore your are giving me right now." Sumit chuckled.
[What do you mean host?]
"Never mind let's just focus on what is before us. Time to use this orb now." Sumit said and proceeded to clench the orb in his fist.
The orb broke without any effort and a light came out of it. It entered his body which started to shine.
Just as it had started, it ended abruptly.
"Huh? What?"
[Host check out your status.] The system chimed.
"Status"
The familiar window appeared before his eyes and Sumit instantly notice one big difference from before. A new statistic was present.
[MANA ATTRIBUTE: EXPLOSIVENESS
Description: A desire to cause destruction of the old and creation of the new was observed in the subject.
Subject's innate skills successfully unlocked
1)ASSIGN: ACTIVE SKILL( LEVEL 1) : LOCKED
Learn Mana arts to unlock
2) FIREWORKS : PASSIVE SKILL(LEVEL 1): Grants the user a chance to land a critical hit on opponent during combat. The user's dormant mana interacts with the opponent to cause a reaction thereby causing extra damage.
Current chance: 1%]
"WOAHH! A Critical Chace skill!!" , Sumit could not help but exclaim in delight.
"Though it sucks that the active skill is still locked. Hey, system what are mana arts?"
[Those are something that you would only be able to use after reaching the soldier level]
"So you are not going to explain huh?" Sumit asked inquisitively.
[Well someone told me look at what is in front of me and considering that you are still level 5, just focus on surviving first. Remember it is still the dark hours.]
Sumit could hear a tone of sarcasm and delight in the system's voice, but he chose not call him out.
"Whatever.. it's not like he is wrong. Let's just focus on surviving first." With this thought Sumit picked up some hammers from the now destroyed utility room and stepped out.
"My first goal for now is ---" , before he could say it out loud his stomach rumbled.
Ashamed at himself, he said.. "Let's find food for now."
[I know you were trying to mimic those protagonists. Don't try to act cool now.]
The Smile on Sumit's face froze for a moment but he pretended to not hear that and continued moving towards the mess area of the dormitory.
Having learnt his lessons from the previous encounters he moved with caution.
In the way he encountered a couple of zombies whose heads he split open quite easily with his current strength.
[+10exp
+10exp
+10exp
…..]
The system kept chiming in.
"Hey, System tell me one thing if one of these things bit me, would I also turn into one of them? Sumit asked.
[Forget a bite. Even a scratch would be Game over for you.]
"F*ck, aren't you telling me this quite late." Sumit cursed at it.
[Well, you never asked.]
Sumit was annoyed at the system but he decided to leave this matter for later and finally entered the mess.