Rumination and Observation [The Gunslinger]

Hi, TheDespaxas here. Here's a new branch from theGunslinger. As always things might differ in how they work in relation to my or other branches. Good reading.

As John walked into the park, he stowed his bag in his inventory and glanced at his mana bar. Full from lunch and regenerating twice as fast because of the buff, he decided to try to experiment with his mana.

The first thing he tried was to his mana out of him, and although he felt a feeling rise up, it was too vague for him to manifest anything. Trying a different tactic, John sat down on a bench and activated Meditation. While meditating, he focused on his mana again. There were two fleeting feelings, one violent and explosive, the other solid and neutral. He seized the violent feeling first. A sudden shock ran through him, and John opened his eyes to a popup.

New Skill: Mana Bolt, level 1, base 5 mp
10 magic damage on target, range 20ft.

That was good, but he was even more curious as to what the other feeling was. Resolving to seize it before it left completely, John the solid feeling to the surface. He felt a new weight in his hand and opened his eyes to another popup.

New Skill: Mana Construct, level 1, varied mp
Can currently only be used to form simple objects. Constructs stay for (Skill level x 5) minutes. Constructs cannot be placed into the inventory. You can only make and shape constructs with your hands. Mana constructs will be transparent to normal people.

John cast Observe on the solid blue block in his hand.

Mana Block: Common item. This block of mana measures five inches cubed and can support twice its own weight. Shatters when overburdened.

That opened some interesting opportunities. John tossed the mana block into the air, but the second it lost contact with his skin, it vanished. He called up another one and tossed it to the same effect. That would’ve been useful information, he thought as he decided not to waste all his mana on one skill. Glancing at his mana bar again, he noticed each block had cost him 5 mp, leaving him with only 55 mp to use.

He tried to Meditate to get more powers again, first feeling inside of himself for strength. Though he could feel his own mana pool, the feeling of latent abilities was absent. He wasn’t sure if he didn’t have any more or if he had gotten too many in such a short amount of time. Either way, these were good enough to be useful.

Putting his hands together, John slowly pulled them apart as he focused mana into his hands, and a long, translucent blue rod appeared before him. Apparently, Mana Construct took quite a bit a willpower to create anything beyond a block the size of a Lego. John grabbed it and noticed that it didn’t seem to be very heavy. Its weight made it feel hollow. He began to clumsily roll it across his hands, trying to get a feel for its weight. He glanced at his mp bar absentmindedly while doing this and noticed the rod had cost him thirty mp. Thirty? For this? It’s basically just a hollow twig! John thought as it rolled too far and he accidentally dropped it.

Despite the block instantly disappearing, the rod only slowly began to disintegrate. Maybe the more I put into it, the more staying power it has, John reasoned as he tapped the rod against the bench. He increased the tapping to hard rapping until the rod began to crack as he smashed it once against the bench with all his strength, shattering it.

Mana Construct Level 2

“You probably shouldn’t be doing that out in the open, you know,” a feminine voice called, and John looked up to see a somewhat familiar girl standing over him. She had vibrant red hair and what looked like a guitar strapped to her back. Her eyes were an icy shade of blue. “Hello? Anybody in there?” she asked as she leaned in, at which point John broke out of his reverie.

“Oh, yeah, right… wait, you can see that? Who are you?” He asked as he instinctively cast Observe, only to be met with an error message.

Observe failed! Target’s level too high!

“Nobody important,” came her reply as she turned around again. “Just, don’t do that out in the open. Normal people will think you’re crazy and abyssal people a lot less nice than me will start asking questions.”

Before John could ask any questions, she already began walking away. He rose from the bench, intent on asking her more about well… everything. Especially what she meant by Abyss. Turning toward the direction she went off in, he realized that he had already lost her in the semi-crowded park.

Noticing he had just enough mp left for a Theft, he decided to walk at a slow pace, attempting to Meditate at the same time. After losing focus of his surroundings, he managed to clear his mind while moving. This caused a popup to appear in front of him.

You may now move (slowly) while Meditating! Meditation will be broken much easier while doing this, and the improvement of regeneration will vary.

That was… better than he could have hoped for, but all things considered, it made a lot of sense when applying skills to real life scenarios. As long as he could tune out sounds and focus on nothing in particular, he could Meditate.

He tried out this walking variant and noticed it was much harder to keep his focus. It seemed to constantly teeter on the edge of bringing him back out, but thanks to the relative calm of the park, he was able to keep his concentration on having his mind be clear.

He made sure to walk in range of people and activate the skill. Every two or three uses he would check his inventory, mostly getting wallets, with a few odds and ends scattered throughout.

After a few hours, all but one slot in his inventory left and enough mana for two uses, he used Theft twice on one man, who seemed to be walking with intent, and sat on a nearby bench immediately afterwards to see what had happened to the excess item.

Meditate level 2: hp regen 2.2x, mp regen 3.2x
Theft level 3: 18 mp, range 3ft
All That Junk
Fill your inventory beyond capacity (either through skills or quest rewards)
-Delete one item to receive the one past the limit
-You can now delete items from your inventory via the cool new trash can logo (I suggest you do that with all those credit cards, unless you want to go to jail for a reeeaaaally long time.)

John once again reflected on who was writing these, before realizing what it had actually said. He followed the mysterious advice and dragged the wallets to the trash can, noticing that instead of falling onto the ground they simply disappeared. That’s useful I guess. If I had enough time I could solve all of Earth’s landfills, John mused as he finished deleting the wallets.

He scanned his inventory once more for the other bits he had gotten from people and remembered it was mostly uninteresting things. Some car keys, a couple of pens, a magazine, a gun… wait, a gun!? I got a gun from that last guy!? John leaned forward and cast Observe on the handgun in his inventory.

SIG Sauer P220: Mundane item. This pistol was illegal even before you stole it. Good thing, too, the person who owned this thing is going to try to kidnap or somebody soon.

He quickly noticed the magazine was the bullet type, not the paper type. What!? If he had a backup magazine, he was definitely planning on using it! Inaction grasped him as he tried to remember what the last person he had used Theft on looked like, but their faces had started to blend together. He couldn’t even remember which direction the man had gone in.

Taking his best guess, he sprinted toward the nearest park exit. It was just a minute ago right? John reasoned with himself as he crossed the exit, then the street. His endurance quickly ebbed as he glanced down each alleyway he passed. At that moment, he spotted the girl from the park exit a music store and immediately disappear.

He ran toward where she was nonetheless, but as he crossed the middle of the street, the world around him shifted. It was as though everything took on the subtle shift of looking at something through water. Glancing around the street, he noticed the people were missing. A traffic light blinked overhead, but the switch took longer than normal, or was he imagining that?

Pushing the thought out of his mind, he heard a familiar voice yell out. “What do you think you’re doing? Get away from me, you freaks!”
He slowly approached the music store, the instruments in the windows distorted, as if out of an impressionist painting. As he reached the front, he peeked inside.