“Most espers are like monsters, they have abilities that are pre-carved into their magical stone, and their layers are already set.” David told her. “What this means is that as long as they reach the required mana pressure then they will naturally move into the next layer. This is both an advantage and a weakness, while they can become powerful with less work than a regular person, they are also completely trapped in what they can do.”

 

“Can you explain more?” She asked.

 

“An esper will always have bizarre abilities, sometimes it is hard not to mistake them for a martial force user, well we called them warriors or a magician. Their skills can seem just like them.” David explained. “Fighting an esper is mostly about figuring out their abilities, once you know what they are it is fairly easy to fight them. They usually follow a trend, if you see an element it is safe to assume that is the only element they will attack you with.”

 

“Why did you say they are like monsters?” She asked.

 

“Monsters are very similar to espers, the difference between humans and monsters is the ratio of espers. Most monsters are espers about forty percent of them, the rest are martial force users and we learned our earliest systems from them. By training in the same way they did, we managed to create the first generation of warriors.” David said. “That was how the first humans overthrew their Esper overlords. Before that, the only ways people had of acquiring power was either through a church using invocation or by mixing blood.”

 

“Mixing blood?” She asked with confusion.

 

“Yeah, it is a disgusting practice that involves taking in traits of a monster or another race. It usually involves a ritual or a complex spell.” David said. “You take a piece of the creature and absorb it into your body. If you find someone of mixed blood, they choose to become a monster. Even things like vampirism will kill you if you continue to fight it, but once you accept it then you are no longer human. These things usually alter the personality of the person undergoing it, they are never the same as they were before.”

 

“Got it, what about you?” She asked.

 

“I went through what was called awakening, it means someone in another realm died and I inherited a portion of their memories.” David said.

 

“Is that why you cry in your sleep? Is it something sad?” She asked.

 

David paused from the work he was doing, he was in the process of using a rotary tool to carve an enchantment into the machete he had modified. This was something he hadn’t realized he did, he looked over and saw Lena sitting on a tall stool in the corner. Her face wasn’t very expressive, and she usually had a blank expression.

 

Her hair was clean, she probably did it after he had turned the water back on. She was wearing a pair of designer jeans with a belt since she was still regaining her form. She also wore a plain green top that was loose over her torso.

 

“How do we get stronger?” She asked.

 

David shook his head to clear his thoughts, what she had said about him crying in his sleep was jarring to him. He had only slept a couple of times, but he only had a few instances where he didn’t have terrible dreams about the Machine Lord’s life when he did sleep. David had thought when the man died it was over, but he was just watching a movie that was out of order. 

 

“There are a lot of different ways, killing monsters and absorbing the mana they release on death. You usually only want to do this with living creatures, things like the undead are a really bad idea.” He told her. “If you do this too often it is easy to become a mixed blood or some kind of abomination.”

 

“Is that the only way?” She asked.

 

David began heating the silver solder he was using to make enchantments, the difference between a run and an enchantment was a magic stone. He was still able to use his mace if he was willing to pour his mana into the enchantment. It wasn’t a whole lot different than locking the bit in a power drill and using it as a screwdriver. 

 

“No, there are a lot of different ways. You can search out magical fruits, vegetables, and herbs. You can eat processed monster meat, and you can absorb it from magical stones.” He said. “Time is the most common one though, you will naturally accumulate mana every day that you don’t use it.”

 

“Wouldn’t you have the same issue with absorbing it from the stones as you do from the body?” She asked.

 

“No, you can do it as long as the stone is stronger than yours. Imagine you have two water bottles and the most you can do is equalize the fluid between them.” David explained. “The mana stored in the magic stone is very pure and doesn’t have any taint to it. It is just like a poisonous animal will not keep their poison anywhere where it can negatively affect them.”

 

“It sounds like hunting monsters is the only way then.” She muttered to herself.

 

“Monsters or humans, humans also possess magical stones.” David told her. “In the memories I have it wasn’t uncommon for them to drain other humans of their mana, especially prisoners and slaves.”

 

Edea came up with all kinds of sick habits, it wasn’t just prisoners but even their old were expected to pour their mana into what was considered the best offspring even if it killed the elderly person. If one baby cried louder or thrashed around more violently then he may get a lot of grandpa and grandma’s mana. Even though in reality they only received less than five or ten percent of it due to how much was wasted in the process.

 

David finished adding solder into the carvings, and began to scrape away the excess with a file, he would then use sandpaper to give it a better finish. Looking at the machete it now had a set of spikes coming off the back, the middle one was the longest at 6 inches(~15CM) with several shorter 1 inch(2.5CM) a short distance away. To finish off his modifications he added a handguard to it, to make it more useful against humans.

 

The enchantment he added was called Hardening, it made the weapon harder but it also increased the weight. The Machine Lord had wondered if it was a drawback, but it was low level since it didn’t modify the type of damage. It was a good all-around enchantment if you weren’t sure what else to put there.  

 

“I only tell you this because it is very likely that espers will be in control of any settlements that we discover in the future.” David told her. “Anyone can be an awakened, and a lot of worlds had similar practices of using the elderly and imprisoned as batteries for those they considered to be loyal.”

 

If you had to choose between handing over what little power you had or being killed, most people chose to hand over their mana. This led most people who didn’t want to fight to choose to not train their mana at all. If it can just be stolen from you, why would you even try to build it up?

 

“What about the military?” She asked.

 

The ocean would be a breeding ground for giant monsters, and being a large ship made you more likely to get the attention of something living in the waters. The sky would also be filled with large flying monsters, they tended to be territorial, and it was risky to fly through their land. The earth was also not ruled by humans, humans were low on the food chain.

 

Whoosh! 

 

David’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of water shooting across the ground from outside. David reached over and grabbed the machete he had just finished, making his way to the wooden door in the workshop. Looking out a window that was set in the top, he could see a bear-like creature that was facing the watershed.

 

David paused when he saw a pale face lean over his shoulder, and he saw Lena looking out the window over his shoulder. She was standing on the tips of her toes as she saw the large hairy creature. She didn’t seem afraid as she had already seen a lot of undead.

 

“Perfect, just what I wanted.” David said this with a smile, as he reached for the door handle.

 

Lena didn’t try to stop him as he opened the door, this caused the large creature to turn towards the workshop. It was the size of a bear and walked on four legs, it had white shaggy fur and a flat face with two brown spots over its eyes and ears. This is where its resemblance to a pitbull ended.

 

It had several rows of sharp serrated teeth similar to a shark, and a stout and thick jaw that made it look like it had a large chin. David took the machete from his elbow where he stored it, the large white creature was issuing thick foaming drool from its large mouth. It had grown large enough that a person could fit their entire head in its jaws, and its limbs were as thick as posts.

 

“Damn you are ugly, now I know why the family left.” David said as he continued to approach the monster.

 

The dog had become a monster, it was now a hound, one of the lowest of monster dogs. Seeing the red shade that was developing in its eyes, he could imagine the evolution path it was on, it was becoming a hellhound. It had probably killed a lot of the people in the area, and this caused the family to flee.

 

The Hound charged at David, its large jaws springing open as they went for David’s throat. David went under it and to the side, he then attacked one of the rear legs the dog was standing on. A machete was like an ax with a long blade, and the spikes he added near the top of the blade only accentuated this.

 

Slice! Yelp!

 

David lost his balance as he slammed the machete blade into the back left leg of the Hound. The enchantment he used added 20 pounds(9KG) to the blade and caused him to swing off balance. The Hound was even more startled as it had a massive chunk taken out of its thigh, but it recovered quickly.

 

The hound was covered in scars from other beasts and even gunshot wounds, it recovered quickly and tried to take another bite at David. Which he was forced to dive away with and roll across the ground. The dog tried to follow but was restricted by its wounded leg.

 

David stood up from his roll across the ground, he was covered in brown dirt over his dark gray shirt and in his black hair. He had planned to shower, but it looked like he was going to be plumbing instead. He was also forced to hold his injured arm to his chest.

 

“I have never been injured so much in my life, as I have in these last few weeks.” David mumbled as he adjusted his injured arm.

 

David was now circling the Hound, it had lost a lot of its mobility with its injured leg. Now that it was focusing on defense it was hard for him to approach without the risk of being violently attacked. David was making all kinds of feints with the blade to try to get it to attack him.

 

He kept pushing the blade forward into the Hound’s face to try to get it to strike so he could finish it off. He didn’t want to commit until it had already exhausted its ability to counterattack. He wanted to get into the second layer so that he could cast spells without using a medium, then he could use his right hand to cast while he attacks with his left.

 

Yelp!

 

The Hound suddenly jumped up into the air, a look of horror mixed with pain appeared on its face. Seeing his opponent was wide open, David swung the machete backhanded. The spike came in from under its mouth and then went up into its skull. 

 

The Hound tried to scream, but it could only make gurgling noises with its mouth forced shut. Suddenly David realized he was in danger as one of the large paws lifted off the ground and started to swipe towards him. David did the smartest thing he could do, and let go of the weapon as he backed away.

 

The hound's paw swiped in front of him, throwing dirt onto his clothes but he was already shielding his eyes. He then backed away from the Hound again. David then took a few steps back towards the workshop. 

 

The Hound was in its death throes as it tried to pull the spike out of its thinking tool so it could figure out what happened to it. David was just watching and waiting as it was struggling less and less, this was one of the most dangerous times to deal with a beast. A lot of people died when they got impatient and tried to get the mana while the monster was still alive.

 

“This is why the military will be having so many problems. This Hound is capable of having pups all year round as long as it can find a mate.” David said as he watched its struggles dying down. “This monster is capable of having eight to ten pups per litter, and it would probably mate several times a year.”

 

David watched the large creature finally cease its struggles as it breathed out its last breathe.

 

“Let’s go.” David said as he walked towards the dead Hound.

 

Lena started to follow behind him, she didn’t have any fear or hesitation as one would expect. She realized what he was getting at when he pointed out the creature's features, this was only a dog and it was this dangerous already. It could be imagined how dangerous all of the other animals would become.

 

“Not all of them will become like this, but a lot of them will become monsters. I can estimate that about ninety percent of all animals will become monsters.” David said as he held out his hand to take Lena’s.

 

She put her head down, this was to hide her lightly blushing face as she offered her hand to David. He took it and placed it onto the Hound’s body next to his and began helping her absorb the mana with him. This feeling wasn’t as rough as when he had pulled mana from the magical stone that belonged to the undead. 

 

David sighed sadly as they didn't get much mana from the Hound, it was still in the lower tiers so it couldn’t do much for them with the mana it stored in its flesh. David released the blonde woman's hand and noticed it was shaking slightly as she took it back. He ignored this as he turned over the dog and used the blade of the machete to start cutting open the dog's stomach.

 

“This is going to be life now if you don’t want to be the pet of someone stronger than you.” David said sadly. “The only way to be able to survive in this new world requires you to spend a lot of time around mana. A lot of people tried to live like normal people in the world I got my memories from, and they ended up as fodder for the strong.”

 

David tossed the useless organs out of the way, he was only worried about the magic stone, he finally found it near the liver and began to cut it out of the corpse. He was worried that he could have damaged it if it was located in the head. David pulled out the small stone and tried to decide what he would use it for, he thought it would be better to put it in the machete so that he could conserve mana.

 

“Alright, Princess. I need you to burn the body.” David told her. “This thing has started to get an infernal nature, so we don’t want to eat it.” 

 

David began to stretch out his sore shoulder as he watched her step forward and begin tracing a rune on the Hound’s body, this soon caused it to burst into flames. Since he had seen undead he was now a firm believer in burning every corpse that he made. He then turned his head towards the direction of Boulder and more importantly, his parents.

 

“When we have rested and recovered a few days, I plan to go back to find my parents.” David told her. “I came from a town called Boulder that was near Denver. I need to find them.”

 

The woman was looking at him with her normal blank expression, she seemed to do this when she was thinking. She could hide everything from her face and he would only see brief flashes of emotion in her eyes. She smiled gently suddenly at him and spoke.

 

“I don’t want to part from you, can I go with you?”