55 Titles are Overrated

Having returned a few days ago, John walked the streets of the fortified human settlement. He could feel the tension in the air and watched many pack the meager belongings they possessed and prepare to head out.

Most thought they had gained a solid enough foothold in this low danger area but, with the emergence of a new and unexpected threat, one which wiped out an entire expedition team at that, quite a few were looking to set up a home further away from the edge of the mist then just a few days worth of driving, in fear that it would expand before long.

"Hey John." Greeted Alfred.

The blacksmith had somehow been among the small number who survived the expedition.

John walked into Alfred's shop. Joey had already arrived so they were simply waiting for the other two to get there.

"You're clearly not among the number who decided to leave?" John asked, making light conversation while they waited for the others.

"Heh, you want to get rid of me?" Joked Alfred, not taking any actual offence to the question.

"Not at all. Where would we be without our favourite smith? But, after actually being there, I'd think you wouldn't want to risk your life staying."

"These old bones have seen plenty, a bit of water vapour aint gonna scare me off."

"Most toxic water vapour I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing, and what do you mean 'old bones', you're not even 50 yet." Chimed in Joey.

"I base age off of experiences, and in that regard, I'm ancient." Rebutted Alfred.

"If that's how it's measured, we'd all be ancient."

The room fell into silence after John's remark, none of them had any counter to that statement. In the past year alone, the world had been flipped on its head. Magic appeared, a status system manifested into reality and, right when every system based web novel fan was cheering, countless numbers of people were massacred by both monsters and humans alike. They didn't even know if there were any large human settlements around apart from themselves. It was highly probable that there were but they couldn't be certain since the state of the larger world was a mystery.

"I just wish we'd get a break… first the collapse of society, then frantic scrambles to survive, and, right when we thought that we finally could start pushing out from a stable position, another horrible event takes place and we're all back to square one." Added Tycheros, no one knew when he'd arrived.

"Agreed." Muttered John, wearing a tired expression as he called forth his status panel, frowning at the last entry which was still present.

[Current Effects: Corruption

Corruption:

> Foreign property contamination detected…

> Analysing…

> Inverse relation to user…

> Negative impact deduced…

> Calculating corruption level… 004%]

This particular entry disturbed John even more than it usually would because it wasn't listed like any of the other entries he'd ever gotten. In the past, it was spelled out in an easily understood format, much like a status effect description in a game, but, every time he inspected this particular effect, it would slowly appear line by line, as if he was observing the admins log on something in a game rather than the players.

John had attempted to inspect all of the terms which had appeared in this description but nothing happened so he was just left with anxiety as the percentage slowly crept up. Provided, it hadn't increased at all since he first noticed it, but it was still quite distressing.

"What are you guys chatting about?" Asked Michael as he walked through the door, having already seen the rest sitting in a contemplative silence.

"Mainly about the fact that many are leaving the base." Replied Joey.

"Yeah, I noticed the large amount of people packing their stuff. What are your thoughts?"

"Don't really have any, if they want to go, then let them."

"Fair enough, what about you John?"

"I think they're probably going to regret their decision." Responded John. "This is the least monster infested location for quite a distance, plus, we already have walls and other defenses in place. If any unforeseen circumstances arrive, then we'd be the best off. Provided that circumstance isn't the mist expanding to our location of course."

"But what if it is?" Enquired Tycheros.

"Then we've lost the gamble, and everyone who left is going to be glad they did..."

The room once again fell into silence. Whatever topic the group originally wanted to discuss having been long forgotten.

-----------------------------------------

Kasdeya quickly moved her finger through the air, a line of mana following in its wake as she finished inscribing the last part of the rune and then watched it dissolve into a ball of fire which flung towards the far wall, before dissipating in a small blast.

A new rune, which she learnt after her evolution, was called a 'vector rune', allowing her to apply direction to any 'spells' conjured via runes, effectively casting things like fireballs. She also discovered that, through researching how objects interact with space, or, more importantly, mana she injected into the space, she could roughly surmise a matching rune after some effort is applied on her part. The downsides to this new method of learning though, was that it wasn't instant so she actually had to take time to learn, it generally gave her a headache and it was quite useless when it came to more conceptual words such as 'vectors' or 'time'.

"How am I supposed to see how time interacts with mana? Haa. Though, in terms of progress, this is definitely what one would call 'leaps and bounds'."

Kasdeya decided that she had practiced enough with runes for now and was able to fight well enough with them through inscribing them into space. She still preferred carving them into objects though, as it was much quicker to use.

Turning to the 'outfit' she had made, Kasdeya observed her amazingly crafted 'yeti suit'. It was a poorly put together abomination, but, in terms of function, it was the best she had. Kasdeya had finally started implementing the information she had gained from the 'technomancer core' relic she discovered a while ago, if only to a small degree, and used runes and some rocks to make a few handy additions to her suit.

On the arms, she had attached a rune combination of fire runes, attraction runes, and vector runes, allowing her to launch fireballs whenever she wanted, if only for a short range due to fire naturally dissipating, without having to inscribe it into the air. Additionally, she could channel large amounts of mana into the runes to effectively make a flamethrower, which made it even more appealing. On the outside of the torso she had inscribed mana disruption runes and, inside the suit, she had fitted the crystal altilium.

"Now the only order of business is to leave this cave and keep exploring."

Kasdeya stood up, wearing her newly created atrocity, when she felt, and saw, a strange ripple travel past her position...