Test subject 001

A few days have passed since the arrival of mana.

The air around the apartment block right-wing has lightened up considerably, and people are becoming more confident about themselves.

Currently, two such confident people are arguing.

"Hey little girl, I know you have been by sis May's side since the start, but I'm telling you she needs someone more capable. Someone like me! I have years of experience leading people, unlike you." Opal said with an air of confidence around him, making others think that he was fighting for something greater and not only for a lackey position.

"Y-you! Shameless! I have worked so hard and sis May hasn't said anything, how can you just come and say you will take over my duties!" The little girl said as her eyes redden, fist tightly clenched.

The old vs the young will always be a cliche moment in every novel, but something was wrong with this scene. Gran couldn't put a finger on it. Guess he could only attribute it to a redistribution of the hierarchy, as society resets so does the hierarchy.

...

Gran slowly walk away from the bunch, random thoughts clouded his mind.

As he was wandering around he found himself staring at the map of the entire building. Usually, buildings like this will have a holographic map with the layout of the building, making navigation much easier.

As he mentally checked off the places they have clear, his eyes landed on one.

'The garage.'

"Guess I'll go loosen up a bit," Gran proceeds to walk down the stair at a leisurely pace.

...

'Where is he going?' May bit her lips as she spied Gran wandering off alone. She decided to follow him from behind in case he happened to have thoughts of infidelity, or that was the reason she used to persuade herself that she wasn't a stalker.

With steps as silent as a bouncing ball and breathing as labored as an animal in heat, she stalks her prey. Of course, what else could be on her mind when she discovered that she and Gran could finally be alone.

...

Gran paid no heed to the unfilial disciple as he arrived at the entrance of the garage. The garage was huge, how could it not be. With the tenants being super-rich people, all sorts of fancy cars and hovercraft could be seen.

With a height of 5 stories deep, the garage was a space where one could freely navigate through the floating platform elevator, with the hovercrafts restricted to the lower levels.

The hovercrafts leave through a tunnel at the bottom, connected to a runway that allows them to pick up altitude as they exit into the airspace. Landed vehicles however exit through a normal gantry that leads to the first floor.

Together with the multiple pathways into the garage from other parts of the building, access to the garage was plenty.

When the apocalypse started and monsters started spawning in mana rich places, it was generally time for work, thus the garage could be seen as a busy place.

This explains the magnitude of destroyed precious vehicles and hovercrafts covered in flame extinguishing fluids, making the garage in its current state an absolute mess. The tunnel leading to the runway was blocked off by foolish hovercraft masters who couldn't afford to line up during an apocalypse. Uncultured swines!

...

Gran could see the all too familiar grey-skinned zombies wandering around. Some were even stumbling towards him after he made an entrance without bothering to hide his presence.

'Not enough.' Gran shook his head as he saw the number of zombies aiming for him. He wanted even more mobs for what he was about to do them.

As he spread his mana sense outwards, covering most of the garage, he sensed something strange. 'Hmm?' A weird mana signature, large. What he saw through mana sense was a large bundle of mana gathered together on a single being. Different from zombies, who have mana spread throughout their bodies, this particular creature perked Gran's interest.

With a faint smile on his face and an excited gleam in his eyes, he continued walking forward making as much noise as possible. Some zombies already near him were easily sidestepped, as he made his way towards the hypothetical center of the zombie crowd.

...

May stood at the entrance of the garage not knowing what she should do.

'Is he really playing with zombies now?? Why? Am I not a beauty? Why not play with me?'

She couldn't comprehend what Gran was doing, as he looked like a desperate attention seeker in her eyes right now. She would wait and see. If he was really planning on doing something funny with those monsters, even though she couldn't touch the edges of his clothing in a real fight, she would give him a piece of her lewd mind.

As the zombies piled up he finally sensed the movements of the unusual one.

'It's here!'

*Boom*

A huge dent could be seen on the location Gran once stood. He appeared from just meters away from the long tail that threatened to split him in half.

"That was close. Or not." Gran looked at the 1.5 m tall monster in front of him, with a body covered in rough fur, a face that resembles a rat, and claws not any less threatening than its tail. Different from a rat though was that it stood on its hind legs, or on what used to be its hind legs.

A metallic sheen reminiscence of car parts made up a large part of the rat's new pair of prosthetics, with a huge wheel on the ends of both legs. A faint engine sound could be heard coming from them.

"What in the world did mana do to you?" Gran asked with a look that was continuously gaining a mad glint, one that would make geniuses in the Captial City recognize him as the 'Mad Genius'.

Not bothering with receiving a reply, even though that would be another interesting thing to witness, Gran proceed to scan the rat's body as the rat, in turn, looked him up and down.

"Hey, do you agree to be my test subject? I promise no remuneration and compensation will not be given regardless of what happened to your body. Deal? Okay."

'How unreasonable!' May thought as she overheard Gran trying to conduct an illegal experiment.

"Here I go! Oh, and May, watch and learn." Gran's abrupt remark snapped May out of her thoughts as she wondered how she was discovered.

...

[Enhanced Fire Style: Burst]

*Boom*

Gran's leg landed on the ground, barely missing the rat automaton thing, a faint trail of flames lingered along the trajectory of his ax stomp. This new mana enhanced style was an upgrade of Fire Style: Flare; using powerful movements like ax stomps, uppercuts, etc. Using mana, the moves became even more powerful and the fire made from mana continues to burn everything that dared lay in its path.

"Quite the agile one, must be those engines and wheels on its leg, it can change direction as it pleases." Gran analyzed as he continuously used Burst over and over again, with most landing on the ground, much to the rat automaton's befuddlement.

The rat must be thinking that Gran was a noob, only being able to singe its fur when he was slightly caught off guard.

Now the ground around the battlefield was burned black, with lingering mana from Gran's moves.

The rat sped up with a burst of its engines, following with a spin, its tail did a side sweep towards Gran as he landed after another missed.

But everything changed too quickly for the rat to react.

...

'This should be enough.' Gran thought as he landed on the ground, purposely missing his Burst. His eyes landed on the ground as cracks could be seen everywhere and something glowing could be seen in it, threatening to burst out.

"Got you!" Gran's eyes turned serious as the rat entered the radius of 5 m in front of him.

The air and mana around him shivered as they heat up rapidly.

His two palms turned hot white as every slight move combusted the air surrounding them.

Gran abruptly raised both hands before slamming them down to the ground. The glowing cracks in the ground shined blindingly as the temperature within them heated up at an increasing rate.

Like a volcano, after being suppressed for so long, the ground cracked and exploded, releasing all the flame mana it was holding back. A faint image of an erupting volcano could be seen, superimposing the image of Gran's back as May stared at another miracle.

[Enhanced Fire Style: Ultimate Move, Volcano]!!

The rat widened its eyes that were still getting used to achieving sentience as the ground beneath it erupted with immense rage and ferocity. Flames exploded upwards, as the accumulated flame mana destroyed everything in a 20 m radius. Although the explosion point was small, the spread of damage covered a huge area, like the aftermath of a real volcano eruption. Everything in its path, disintergrated.

...

Just as Gran was appreciating the display he created, a small white core bounced and roll towards him, stopping at his feet. Steam could be seen rising from it.