Beginning of the End of the World

He opened his eyes, and a new glow blazed within them.

Robert was an apathetic person, and he knew it himself. His apathy had no special reason, he alone slowly grew bored with the world; but after the first dream everything changed.

For the first time in his life, desire resonated with his bland soul, the emotions that he felt that apprentice, awoke him from his stupor. He was excited, enraptured by the promise of a structured life that ability promised. Since, although he was not completely the same, the magic circuit inscription was very similar to his daily life, full of conditionals and rules, which was something that made him calm. Because since he was a child, he had always hated the unstable and changeable in life, how easily it can change everything that you believed to be true and safe, for some reasons that you do not even know or understand. That is why I am delighted by that new wish. Eager to abandon everything to achieve his new goals, he didn't think much about it.

That light in his eyes was bright, but it was clumsy and silly, as he had eliminated all logic and common sense for his own survival, it made no sense. This time it was different. Although it had been a short time since he awoke, he did not rash up to test his new powers, and embark on a new and maddening quest. He now he was checking the current state of his body, and thinking about the sequence of his plans ...

Although the knowledge that he obtained in this dream was extremely important, and an immediate solution to his problems; What was really more important, he had obtained it from that test, that desire for power, something that he had never considered before.

He wanted power, but it was not the desire that arises to fill the emptiness of his failures and mistakes, but what that man, who was like earth and sky, had shown him; an endless sea of ​​details, small structures that work together to give you such unimaginable power, a step-by-step path that covers every detail, for an overwhelming power that controls everything. At the end of the day, he was not a hot-blooded protagonist who would say a stupid phrase, and would launch into battle, he was always a person who follows patterns and rules to arrive in the most efficient way, to achieve some goal.

When he regretted his great stupidity, he had wasted all the materials he obtained, even so, he did not advance a single step in his ability. Due to his apathy, he abandoned humanity, and now he was alone in a cave, self-exiled to his fate, with no one to share his doubts with. He had neither resources nor food, he lacked information, and he did everything in a stormy way, without even sleeping properly, ruining everything, including his health.

Robert: - How stupid! - He reproached himself.

After releasing a heavy sigh he got up. His body was in a deplorable state, but it was not insurmountable, he just had to persevere, and little by little recover ...

He sat against a wall, eating the supplies shipped each month by the main system. He slowly chewed the hard biscuits, resembling a soldier's provisions, and drank a dark bitter liquid the color of cocoa, while he counted his remaining provisions. After doing the math, he could spread out the duration of the supplies over a month, because even though his body was lanky, he was fully functional, which spoke of how nutritious the supplies should be. If that didn't work, he would double the rations, shortening the time to fifteen days. There wasn't much time left, and the main system hadn't shipped the supplies, and probably wouldn't later.

There wasn't long left before he starved, and in his current state, he couldn't even run to save his life, he had to train as fast as possible.

He made a small energy sphere appear, similar to the one in the dream, with the help of the terminal, because if he could control the mana in such detail, and be able to create that energy sphere with precision, then he would never have had so many problems and failures. But the terminal had the auto-run function, which forced the use of skills automatically.

The sphere began to circulate in his body, Robert closed his eyes and turned off his mind, this time easy faith, different from the previous one, when he took several minutes to control his emotions. For Robert that he could fall asleep without dreaming just by closing his eyes, so many minutes of restlessness were serious. But now all emotions were under the tight grip of a firm will.

He closed his eyes and slept, as the sphere cycled inside his body.

Five days he spent training. The path was fixed and the lines sharp, but he felt dissatisfied, as he could not control the energy sphere, created by the self-execution of the skill, his magic circuits were too wide, almost a centimeter thick, leaving him with a large vulnerability. Similar to injecting poison into the bloodstream, if a curse were to hit him, he would easily reach his soul, without him being able to resist in the least.

For four more days, he tried to create a sphere of energy with the same characteristics, but much smaller. After several failures, a small sphere of pale blue glowed between his hands, it was ten times smaller, and it possessed a faint trace of his own will.

Ripping out the magic circuits that he already possessed was the only way he found to be able to remake his magic circuits. After all, they were mana too, he could expel it from his body. But his best option was to pull them up like pulling a root, it was the way he thought, that it didn't leave any residue; as trying to fragment them, he dispelled them, spreading mana residues that could contaminate his body, damaging him in the process. Extracting the entire set of magic circuits outwards, keeping their complete structure, was the most optimal way to eliminate them; and an answer was not necessary, he knew clearly that the pain would be very intense, as if he began to pull on his nerves, extracting them from each muscle. An excruciating feeling.

But even if it was painful, it was not a real risk to her life. So with his new will strengthened from him I start the process.

From a point on his upper back she began to draw his magic circuits, pulling slowly. The feeling was eerie and severely uncomfortable. A deep and intense pain gradually increased. But Robert wasn't going to stop, he decided to pass this test as an atonement for his past stupidity and a rebirth for his new life. But as the minutes passed, the insane pain grew, and made his will tremble.

After seven hours, after a searing pain, without the option to lose consciousness, in order to maintain the stable structure of the magic circuits, he had managed to end his torment. A structure of bright blue lines, similar to images of the lymphatic system, hovered above Robert, but all his ability to concentrate was exhausted. Shortly after he lost consciousness, the structure began to dissipate into nothingness.

...

He woke up tired, with a creepy sensation in his body, as if insects had burrowed into his flesh, the sensation was terribly uncomfortable, but there was something else that caught his attention. The proficiency of the skill that had almost completely stopped at 30.2%, had increased to 44.8% in one jump.

When he was training with auto-execution activated, initially proficiency had increased rapidly, but it stopped almost completely after the third day, no matter how long he tried, and now after destroying all his advances, proficiency increased rapidly. He did not understand it, in his head many doubts were formulated, but he could only sigh, he had gotten one more question to which he had to seek an answer, but now the uncomfortable feeling prevented him from thinking.

He lay flat on the ground, and began to train. Unlike the previous time, he couldn't use the terminal's auto-run since he started creating the energy sphere, so he wouldn't intervene in the process. But he managed to control it soon. Then he fell into a completely white sleep, and the energy sphere cycled through his body unconsciously.

It took him just two more days to complete his magic circuits once again, not only were they much thinner, they also gave a strong sense of belonging.

When he finished, he began to go through the skill tree more thoroughly for answers. As proficiency steadily increased, he hadn't noticed; But after the sudden increase that he obtained by extracting the magic circuits from him, the amount of power and the control of the mana in his body underwent a remarkable change, a clear increase in power. But instead, the new development of his magic circuits had only increased by 0.8% (45.6%), he did not understand the reasons.

A new skill tree had been unlocked, with the name of the "job" engraved on the trunk: magician, and a large number of small darkened branches, except for three branches that had names: condensation of will, magic circuits, roots magical. On a branch near the center was "condensation of will", whose proficiency was at zero, on the right side was "magic circuits" and from it "magic roots."

Robert: / I guess it's a compound skill. / he thought.

The mana control ability did not exist as such, but thanks to that search he had obtained three abilities that make up the base.

Within the skill specification, he had managed to broaden the proficiency description:

[Magic Circuits]

[Auto run: Off]

[Proficiency: 45.6%]

[Magic Circuits: 81.6% (Mana Transfer Channels)]

[Mana Circulation: 32.7% (Mana Speed ​​and Density)]

[Elimination of magic circuits: 68.1% (Extract or completely dispel damaged magic circuits.)]

[Adaptation and / or modification of magic circuits: 0% (Elemental adaptation)]

...

- ... - For a short moment she was silent. - (# exhausted sigh #) If I had been calmer, it would have saved me so much trouble. -

The information that he had just obtained was very important, but, he could not start ripping the magic circuits over and over again, the improvement would be minimal, nor could he specialize in some element, without knowing which element he was going to use. Also, the food gives a time limit, and there is not much left.

- (# snort #) Perfecting skills takes time ... (# Sigh #)

Although I am happy that I obtained three skills at once. I guess the concentration method brings many benefits. (#little laugh #)

What do I do now? - He asked the walls.

- There is only the circulation of mana, but ... I must create a lot of energy spheres to spend the mana ... - He was surprised, as if struck by lightning, he could remember the ability that he had left aside until now.

[Magic Strengthening]

[Auto run: On]

[Proficiency: 0%]

[Skin strengthening: 0% (External coating. Adaptable)]

[Strengthening the muscles: 0% (Internal coating. Flexible)]

[Strengthening of bones: 0% (Internal coating. Rigid)]

[Strengthening Concentrate: 0% (Concentrate Strengthening at one point.)]

[Energy: 0% (Meets the requirements: Stability, Density, Quantity)]

...

An ability had been automatically assigned to all users, when the world rebooted. At the end of the day, and quoting the famous phrase: "I have no evidence, but I have no doubts either", most of the skills chosen by people are almost entirely, uselessly powerful, but completely unusable, leaving only a lot of flashy ballast, but worthless. Luckily it was not the first world where this system was installed, and the great stupidity of humans is something that has been known since the beginning of time. For this reason, a compatible ability was assigned to each user, to ensure his survival.

...

When Robert activated the ability, a thin layer of mana coated his body. After understanding the feel of that magic, he deactivated self-execution, and tried it himself. All progress very fast, either because of his high mana control, or maybe because it was a low-level ability.

Robert had managed to coat his skin, his muscles and bones with a thin layer of mana, keeping him stable; but he couldn't make sudden movements, or he would dissipate. He was unusable in battle. The most difficult thing was the coating of the muscles, which had a separate coating for each one, and had to move with the muscles without destroying each other.

He started practicing hitting the cave walls, at the same time that he practiced mana circulation.

...

He missed hitting.

...

He missed every three hits.

...

He missed every 26 hits.

...

He missed every forty-two hits, every fifty.

...…

He was missing after delivering three hundred hits.

...

I don't fail even after the thousand.

...

When he finished, there were several holes in the cave walls, with dirt and stones scattered everywhere. He was sweating from all sides, and his limbs had various injuries.

He hit the walls with every move imaginable, jumping, running, turning, rolling. He used every muscle in his body in training, until he was always stable.

- Who would say that break dancing would be useful here? - He said, while he smiled satisfied in the middle of the mess he had made.

When he was just starting his job, Robert was insistently bothered by his slight overweight, both at his job and in his family, they seemed to insist on it. But the listless Robert only interpreted that it was necessary to lose weight. And while he was looking for a gym, at night, in the park near his apartment, a group of young people were practicing, it would never have caught his attention if it had not been for a really fat man, who spun so fast, with fluidity and rhythm, That seemed simply impossible.

It was one of the few times in his life that something caught his eye. Although interest did not hold, under his inflexible self-imposed rules, he continued to train with that group, until he perfected his movements.

Obviously his dance lacked rhythm, and all kinds of art, no one could call that a dance, but his constant practice had earned him a nickname: No falls, since no matter the angle at which he fell, he always managed to escape unscathed. , his companions joked that, if they threw him down the stairs, when finished, he would not have a scratch. Now with the improved attributes of him, it would be extremely simple.

I use all those movements that he learned, to hone his skills and completely remodel his cave, it was a bit messy, but, at last there were traces that someone lived here. He felt quite happy, his movements had a rhythm and fluidity, although they had completely stopped being a dance, but he was happy to have learned those movements. It would certainly be unpredictable in battle.

Although he had caused great destruction, that was only the amount of mana he could completely control, if he gathered all of his power into a single fist, he felt that he could perform similar destruction, in a single blow; But he wouldn't just lose his arm in that attack. It would be like a stupid self-destructing trump card, which he would only use in a desperate situation. He really had the firm intention of never using her, but now he had that option.

After all his efforts, the proficiency of the magic strengthening skill had reached 80.2% and the magic circuits 66.3%, he tried in various ways, but he had reached the limit of his talent, now he could only train hard for long periods. , in order to hone your skills.

He did the calculations for him, seventeen days had already passed… He let out a long sigh, as he relaxed his muscles. He sat on a stone, looked at his work and thought:

/ Certainly I am lacking materials… I suppose I should keep digging. /