Chapter 5: My power part 1

78 people died from that fall. Most of them didn't have any power letting them fly or survive the fall. With a total of 45 men and women alive, we found ourselves on a planet similar to earth. The only difference was the platforms, which looked like a giant cube from the outside. The one we were locked on, already disappeared but a lot more were visible to us, still floating in the sky. 'We are not alone.'

Everyone was confused and tired. Some were trying their new abilities and excited to utilize them. And some other ones were terrified of that scene; 78 bodies that most of them don't look like human bodies anymore. I started looking for any survivors or still breathing ones, I found a couple of them. After a long time of observation, I understood that our new powers are related to a new organ. And that is the source of mana. But surprisingly, on every dead body, this organ is heavily damaged, and as I watched one of them die, I understood that the moment a person dies, this organ auto destroy itself. I smiled and started experimenting.

Twenty minutes passed, it was enough time for everyone to rest for a little bit, and get back to their feet. 6 persons came to me, and one of them said "Hey you, stand up."

"I'm busy right now, go make your groups and tell Akira to come here. " I said

He spat on the ground and said "I told you to f**ing stand up! "

I looked at him, he was Pedoro's little minion, I said: "Ah, it's you." I completed as I was standing up:" Did you waste your wish on getting a bigger pair of b**ls or something ?"

"You think we will follow you just because you killed Pedoro? "

"Actually no. But you will, die if you don't."

"The only one dying today is you."

"Don't you want to know my power first? Don't you think it's dangerous to attack me without knowing anything about my ability? I'll show it to you if you want. "

He turned back to discuss this option with his buddies. And then told me: "We will let you show your power before you die."

"Good, I need a volunteer. "

One of them stood in from of me, activated his ability which gave him a metal body. I understood why they chose him but against me, it didn't matter. I put my hand on his head, closed my eyes, and activated my ability. Suddenly, I took my sword, and I pierced my stomach. Then I removed my hand from his head with what looked like his soul attached to it. He stood still lifelessly for a couple of seconds, then his ability got turned off, his soul dispersed to the sky, and he collapsed. His 5 other buddies were furious and ran toward me to attack. I stood still waited for them to get closer. They probably thought that in order to activate my ability I have to do all that ceremony. But the purpose of this was first of all to bait them and kill them easily. And also, to hide my true power. Then I said: "Run guys before you die." 'Pff, so this is my curse then' 

They jumped and were ready to activate their power, but my attack had already stroke them: In a blink of an eye, my body turned metallic and formed 5 big spikes that pierced them, and made them hang in the air.

I said "unfortunately, we didn't get to see your abilities " During that time my wound healed and I gained the ability of the guy that I killed to use for a short time.

In this world killing somebody will heal your wound if they are intact on the dead corpse, but for the mana core, it automatically destroys itself before death. But surprisingly when you make the spirit leave the body, the person is dead and not dead, both of them at the same time. Some similar theories from my previous life's world explained this properly, like Schrödinger's cat in quantum physics. Utilizing this situation, I damaged my mana core and got healed of my enemy's core. It seems that I can take advantage of his abilities and suffer his curse if I do, but under certain circumstances. The first problem was that I can activate the ability only once, and to own an ability permanently I have to steal around 100 abilities, so my mana core can handle a new permanent ability. The second problem was that I knew about this the hard way. During my experiments I successfully got 2 new abilities to start with. The first one was an ability that strengthens my body and my senses. The curse was that I would have to eat like in my previous life to feed my body. Unlike everyone in this world, food is unnecessary to survive, it can only help replenish mana. Thankfully, I decided to keep that ability because the curse was something I'm used to, otherwise, I would've lost it the moment I release it. For the third ability, it was the metallic body, that I used to kill the five men.

I release my ability, the spikes dispersed and I started feeling its curse. My body felt soo heavy for a time equivalent to the use duration, and the weight was probably related to how powerful my attack was. Even though my body's weight was more than tripled, I didn't fall, thanks to my first ability. I turned to the crowd and said "Didn't I prove myself already? We are not here alone which means we are probably going to get attacked by groups similar to us. Do you want to live and be on the top, or to die and turn to dust? " I stopped for some seconds and continued again "I will not force you to follow me anymore, feel free to leave, and for the people that are staying make your groups again" Seeing me using all those scary abilities none of them dared to fight me and what's better they are now convinced that I can lead them. They started making the previous groups. Then Akira finally came to me.

"Where have you been all this time Akira," I said 

He responded "I sincerely apologize for that; I was suffering from my curse "

He explains that his ability was to have other animals' power, but when he ends it, he will turn to a tree with the side of the biggest animal he transformed to for a 1/4 of the time.

I ordered "You have a pretty nice ability, I want you to fly up carefully and gather information about our location, I'm looking for somewhere to build a base. I want suggestions when you come back."

"Yes understood" And he immediately left.

I turned to the crowd and said "I want to see your powers now to know if it will be useful for us or not, the more you contribute the better your life will be. " Among all the abilities they had, I picked five of them. 

Fuji with earth element manipulation, but his power drains water from his body.

Taki with water element manipulation. This girl was talented but her purpose here was to provide Fuji with water.

Touma with an ability similar to the one I used before. He can manipulate metal his job was to make weapons and tools. The last two I named them the surveillance unit. Ohta with the power of vision, can see through things on a large perimeter and Benjiro is waves sensitive, he can locate everything moving on the ground or air from soo far away.

Akira came back and he suggested a location hidden between mountains and that had some natural resources.

I said "We need to protect ourselves as soon as possible. Let's head to this location and build a fortress. Fuji you will build it, I'll make you a blueprint. Taki will provide you with the water needed. And the first unit to start working will be the surveillance unit and the defense unit. Today is an exception but later on, every unit will have a leader chosen by competition and they will be the ones responsible for making the rest of the unit. And as soon as we build the city, we will start the defense unit competition "Suddenly Ohta and Benjiro both turned to the same side. I got into a fighting position and said "Everyone, get ready to fight, someone is approaching" Benjiro confirmed and said, "They appeared out of nowhere, and they are slowly coming towards us, but they are still far away." and Ohta completed "A muscular man and a teenager, from their looks they seem strong." As I was focusing on those two, I felt like the world flipped upside down. My head got cut and fell. Before it hits the ground, I caught it with my hand, and without moving I attached it back to where it was. I got attacked from behind, and the attack was deadly, but thankfully the second ability I stole saved me. It was the first and last time I used it.