The last words Aevis said were in a different language, but he somehow knew that is what they meant. Humanity prevails. The question was, who do they prevail against?
Chapter Two — Xatherite
The tutorial faded, and Drew was back in the darkness of the watch floor. He turned his head from side to side, looking for any source of light, but he didn’t find any. The oppressive gloom added weight to everything he had just heard. He was here in a world that wasn’t anything like the one he had known before. Reaching behind him to find the chair he had been sitting in, he sat down with a heavy sigh.
Citizen, please slot a xatherite node to continue.
Grateful to have at least something for his eyes to focus on in the darkness, Drew accessed his node structure with a thought and it sprang into being before him. To the right of the map was the list of xatherite he had available.
Focusing on them one by one, he pulled up the info screens on each crystal.
Xatherite Crystal Name: Fireball
Xatherite Color: Red
Xatherite Grade: Intermediate
Type: Magic
Effect: Convert mana into a high energy blast of fire that will travel in a straight line until exploding, causing major fire damage in a 1m radius around the blast.
Mana recharge time: 10.5 seconds.
Xatherite Crystal Name: Storm
Xatherite Color: Red
Xatherite Grade: Intermediate
Type: Magic
Effect: Create a localized storm around a target. The storm will have a radius of 10m and will cause significant wind, water, and lightning damage within its radius.
Mana recharge time: 1 minute, 17 seconds
Xatherite Crystal Name: Cone of Frost
Xatherite Color: Red
Xatherite Grade: Intermediate
Type: Magic
Effect: Creates a cone of cold energy which causes significant freezing damage, originating from any part of your body. Has a chance to partially enclose the target in ice, slowing them down considerably. Cone will extend 4 meters and has an arc of 1/4pi radians.
Mana recharge time: 16.8 seconds
Xatherite Crystal Name: Minor Dancing Sword
Xatherite Color: Red
Xatherite Grade: Common
Type: Magic
Effect: Creates a mana construct of a sword that lasts for 30 seconds. The sword will move on its own and attack any target designated for the duration of the attack.
Mana recharge time: 1 minute, 45 seconds
Xatherite Crystal Name: Major Spark
Xatherite Color: Red
Xatherite Grade: Basic
Type: Magic
Effect: Creates an arc of electricity, dealing minor lightning damage from any body part to a target no more than 3m away.
Mana recharge time: 4.2 seconds
Xatherite Crystal Name: Major Refresh
Xatherite Color: Orange
Xatherite Grade: Basic
Type: Magic
Effect: Infuses mana into the target to reduce fatigue and lactic acid buildup.
Mana recharge time: 22 minutes, 24 seconds
Xatherite Crystal Name: Major Mana Guard
Xatherite Color: Yellow
Xatherite Grade: Basic
Type: Magic
Effect: Creates a shield of mana around the caster. This shield will absorb moderate amounts of energy and kinetic damage.
Mana recharge time: 4 minutes, 33 seconds
Xatherite Crystal Name: Minor Acid Dart
Xatherite Color: Red
Xatherite Grade: Primitive
Type: Magic
Effect: Creates a small globule of acid from a finger that travels in a straight line until it impacts a target, dealing minor acid damage.
Mana recharge time: 16.1 seconds
He was a little confused by the damage amounts he was given since they didn’t match up with the hierarchy he had been told to expect in the tutorial. He assumed minor was smaller than small, which was in turn smaller than moderate, but was significant higher than major? Also, Minor Dancing Sword didn’t list a damage at all. Did it not do any damage, or was it because it dealt kinetic damage while all the others dealt energy damage?
He glanced back over the units used. Meters and radians, really? He should have paid more attention in calculus. He was pretty sure 1/4 pi radians was approximately 45 degrees. And meters were easy enough to convert into feet. “I guess this means the system is more interested in math than politics.”
Also, judging by the weird recharge times, his stats must play some sort of effect on how long it took before he could cast the spell again. He also realized that there was no cast time. Did that mean they were all instant effects? Or was it a hidden value that he would have to figure out for each spell?
Glancing at his node structure Drew realized that he wasn’t going to be able to insert all his xatherite currently. Well, he could, but it would spread him out around his constellations and prevent him from fully populating any constellations. He would need to use the yellow and orange xatherite he had to bridge the locations to the other red nodes. This meant he needed to decide if it was more important to complete a constellation or to place all his xatherite.
There were obvious pros and cons to both. If he placed them all, he would begin the process of upgrading all of them, and there was a clear difference in value between his intermediate quality xatherite and the lower grade ones. Getting those lower grade crystals upgraded would make him significantly more powerful. But at the same time, completing a constellation or creating linked skills would do the same thing, giving him more power and hopefully a better survival rate.
Also, where he put them was important. Did he put his good crystals in the four-constellation node so that he could complete it, or in the six-constellation that required a blue and violet xatherite? He had no idea how common xatherite were; the only reference he had for getting more was that apparently killing other humans would allow him to get their xatherite in 100 days after the restriction was removed.
That was a worrisome prospect. It meant that xatherite was rare enough that killing another human for their crystals was part of the process. Which meant that it could be a long time before he got the purple and blue xatherite he needed in order to fully complete the six-node constellation. Perhaps he could trade with other people? Obviously, only ones that he didn’t have slotted, which would be another reason not to slot all his xatherite immediately.
He stared at the nodes in front of him. He simply didn’t have enough information to make the best choices. The gamer inside of him wanted to push him to make optimal choices. But what if he needed all those high-level xatherite to get away from the primary nexus? That was why he received them in the first place, because being near it was so dangerous. He didn’t think the world had suddenly given him multiple lives. So, he needed to focus on the options that would give him the most immediate survivability, while still not severely hindering his future growth.
His stomach rumbled, and he realized it had probably been a few hours since he last ate. He could probably crawl his way over to the snack bar, but the problem was the darkness. He couldn’t see anything, and if that continued, getting a light source was probably his highest priority.
Glancing over his options again, he looked for any options that would provide light. All his attack spells would probably create small bursts of light, but they would also create quite a bit of damage in the area around him. Spark would probably damage considerably less than the higher-grade fireball. He wasn’t even sure if cone of frost would create any light at all. Storm seemed like a bad idea in an enclosed area like the bunker he was currently in, but he really wanted it to start getting attuned. The short cooldown on spark would also be helpful, but he just wasn’t sure how much light it would produce.