-Chapter 4-
Morgan was trying hard to understand this new development, but such a thing was too absurd. He even began to wonder if he had actually lost his mind from the stress of this situation, and just hadn’t noticed it yet. However, it seemed like everyone around him had experienced the same thing, and it was unlikely that everyone’s hysterical hallucinations would match up this well.
Just as Morgan was reaffirming his sanity, he was assaulted by a splitting headache, as if someone was driving dull blades into his skull with a sledge hammer. The pain lasted only a moment, and afterward Morgan noticed something strange. He had new knowledge in his head that wasn’t there before. It was difficult to put into words, but it was as if he simply knew without needing to be taught. This information pertained to a number of commands and basic information about the Status System mentioned in the holograms before.
It seemed as if Morgan wasn’t the only one to receive this information, and he heard a couple people saying words like “open status window’ or “open status” around him.
“H-hey, did you guys get that weird info zap about the System?” Kyle asked hesitantly, still holding his head with one hand.
“Yeah, this is fucking weird.” It seemed as if Jason had also experienced the same thing.
“Well, I guess it’s convenient that it comes with instructions, although it seems a bit lazy on the creator’s part.”
After confirming with the others that he wasn’t losing his mind, Morgan decided to test whether this knowledge was actually correct. Although some people had been saying them out loud, Morgan knew that you could merely think of keywords to activate their effects.
Open Status Window. As soon as he thought the correct keywords, a semi transparent screen appeared right in front of Morgan.
-Status-
Morgan Shaw - Human/ Male - 17 years old
-Attributes-
Mana Lv. 1 - Legacy Lv. 1 - Magic Affinity Lv. 1
-Skills-
Morgan stared at the screen in front of him, dumbfounded. The next moment, Kyle voiced exactly what he was thinking.
“What the fuck is this? Some kind of fucking video game?”
The irritation was evident in Kyle’s voice, and nobody could blame him. After the carnage and slaughter they had just witnessed, after suddenly being thrown into a life or death battle with no warning, after watching their close friends die around them, after all this what did they get? Some kind of video-game-esque “Status Window”, the whole thing seemed like one big, sick joke.
“I get where you’re coming from, but there’s nothing we can do about it now. Maybe it will give us an idea of how we ended up here, and what the hell is going on.”
Morgan tried to calm his friend down, nothing much would come of getting angry when they didn’t even know who to be angry at. Morgan was about to look deeper into his Status Window, when he heard Josh Ruther speak up from nearby.
“Everyone, please try to calm down.”
Almost everyone present turned to look at Josh. Josh was popular for being an honest, hardworking student and a talented athlete before they all woke up in this strange place, so most people here already had a high opinion of him. Their opinion of him continued to rise when they saw him running around fighting the monsters and trying to save people even while covered in wounds, and there wasn’t anyone here who was unwilling to hear him out.
“I know everyone is confused and scared; hell, I’ve got no idea what’s going on here either. However, if we want to increase our chances of survival we need to stay calm and work together.”
“I agree, I think we should discuss what we need for our immediate survival, then figure the rest out later.”
Morgan spoke up to support Josh’s words, trying to maintain a cooperative atmosphere to avoid any hysterics. While not many people here had known Morgan before, they had all witnessed him fighting the monsters head on to save them not long ago. Besides the positive impression they had of him because he had helped save them, the survivors had also seen his combat skills up close, and his words had considerable weight in their minds.
“Thanks.” Josh nodded his head in Morgan’s direction and continued speaking. “Like Morgan said, we should first establish what we need for our immediate survival. Personally, I think we should move away from here.”
“Hey, some of us are badly injured, and you want us to start moving all of a sudden?”
The one who had spoken up to challenge Josh’s words was a short boy Morgan didn’t recognize.
Well, I guess that makes sense. Morgan could see where the boy was coming from, one could tell from a single glance that he wasn’t in good shape. The kid's left leg was wrapped in hastily made bandages, which had already started to show blood soaking through, and was supporting himself with a walking stick.
“I know it’ll be difficult, but I still think it’s for the best.” Josh spoke in a soft tone, but his words were firm.
“And why is that?” The boy responded somewhat brusquely. He was probably afraid of being left behind due to the nature of his injury, and some that were even worse off than him were also paying close attention to the conversation.
“Like I said, I know it’ll be difficult. There are two reasons I think we should move: first, we don’t know when more of those monsters will show up again, and second..” Josh paused for a moment as he looked around, “I don’t think any of us will be able to rest properly so close to our dead friends and classmates.”
Josh was right, even though they had moved a little ways away from the carnage, they could still somewhat see, and worse smell, the blood soaked corpses not far away. And worse still, they didn’t know when more of those things would show up. These people had managed to survive the first time through either sheer luck, or because Josh and his group had fought to save them. This was the sentiment inside most people’s heads.
“W-well, when you put it that way..”
The boy spoke in a small voice, trailing off at the end. He looked down at the ground, seemingly not sure about what he should say.
Morgan looked at Josh, wanting to know how he would deal with the uneasiness of the severely injured, who were obviously worried about being left alone. Although the battles were over, Morgan could still feel the light pressure in his chest that he had felt before. For some reason, this pressure felt immensely reassuring, like a weighty security blanket, the sensation helped him keep cool even in the midst of this uncertainty.
Perhaps due to the calmness brought on by the strange sensation, Morgan was able to look at the situation a little more clearly. He knew that the best way to survive in this situation was to stay together in a big group, and that group would need a leader to hold it together. In Morgan’s mind, Josh Ruther was the perfect person to fit that role. Popular, cool headed, and fair, someone like that could definitely do a better job of keeping this many different people in line than Morgan could.
As if to answer Morgan’s expectations, Josh looked around at the crowd and showed a soft, but somehow charismatic smile.
“Don’t worry, even if it’s hard we can make it if we all take it slow and work together. Nobody is going to be left behind, we’ll all survive this together and make it home.”
Just looking at the relieved expressions on their faces, one could see the calming effect Josh’s words had on the group. Morgan was impressed, following Josh’s lead seemed like the best way forward now, so Morgan walked a little closer to him to offer a suggestion.
“I think we should look for a good water source. It might be a little more difficult to find, but we won’t have time to worry about the monsters if we die of dehydration first.”
“Hmm.”
Josh only hesitated for a second.
“I think you’re right, it might require some extra work now, but in the end it’ll save us a lot of time. Just what I’d expect from you Morgan.”
Morgan didn’t know what kind of impression he left in Josh’s head, but he figured it couldn’t have been bad if he listened to his advice.
“Does anyone have any other suggestions?” Josh turned back to the rest of the group as he asked, but no one spoke up. “Ok, then let's move on as soon as we can. Can those who aren’t hurt as badly please help those who are having trouble walking on their own? Morgan, can I ask you to take care of the guarding details?”
“Yeah, no problem.”
As everyone began moving around to prepare to move, Morgan called the able bodied fighters together to discuss how to best guard the group. In the end, they decided to place Morgan at the front of the group with Jason and Kyle, a couple students who had managed to avoid injury and had armed themselves with various weapons taken from monsters were placed on the sides of the group, and Josh brought up the rear with Derek and Cassidy.
After getting into formation, the group finally took off in search of water.
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Morgan sat cross-legged on the ground, resting his back against a tall black tree trunk, a sword laying across his lap. Sitting that way, with his eyes closed and a stoic look on his face, he almost seemed like one of those ancient martial artists, meditating in hopes of reaching enlightenment. In truth, what he was doing wasn’t much different.
Two days had passed since Morgan woke up in this strange place, and his group had finally found a place to settle down and rest for a while only this morning. It didn’t take as long as anticipated for the group to find a clean stream of drinkable water, although it was mostly due to the contributions of one person. One of the three girls Jason and Kyle had been protecting when they were first summoned had helped lead them straight to water, and was even out now helping to procure food.
Jessica Walker, or Jess as she preferred to be addressed, was apparently someone who loved the great outdoors, and had gone hunting and trapping with her father and grandfather every year since she was a little girl. Using the trails left behind by the animals of the forest, Jess had led the group to clean drinking water, essentially saving all their lives.
It’s a good thing they saved those girls, I just wish Jason would use his damn head a little more before acting so rashly.
Morgan tried to refocus his mind to the task he was attempting to perform, which was exploring the strange pressure he’d been feeling in his chest ever since waking up in this foreign place.
Once they had finally had some time to rest, Morgan and his friends got together with Josh’s group to discuss the strange Status System that they had been awakened to. During this discussion, one of the things discussed was the strange Attributes, which showed up when they called up their Status Window.
Everyone had possessed an Attribute called Mana, which Kyle and Morgan had both recognized from the various fantasy media they had both consumed. The System had given an ambiguous description, but it seemed to fit roughly with what they imagined.
-Mana-
-The energy that is the basis of all things, living, non living, and undead. A mysterious force that bring about all manner of miraculous phenomena, and the basis for the System-
Nobody had been able to figure out this mysterious energy, but according to Kyle, in most video games mana would give you power that you could use to defeat your opponents. Morgan had read all manner of novels in his free time, and some of the fantasy novels he had read mentioned a mysterious energy that was also called mana, and could bring about miraculous effects. However, the descriptions in those novels were always convoluted and hard to understand, so none of that helped him figure it out. The biggest clue Morgan had at the moment was the strange pressure he’d been feeling in his chest since he came to this place, however, when he asked the others if they felt something similar, nobody had.
The conclusion Morgan came to was that if he wanted to make any headway in this direction, he would need to try to learn more about the strange feeling in his chest. To do this, he had been meditating while resting under a tree nearby the other group members. Morgan had finally gotten some time to take a break after staying up for two days in a row guarding the group in case of another monster ambush, so he desperately wanted to sleep. Despite this, he also thought he should learn as much as he could quickly. He couldn’t quite describe why, but he had an urgent feeling that he would need to learn to use his mana in the near future.
Among the numerous books he had read, there was also a book on the effects of meditation which included instructions for different meditative and breathing techniques. Trying to recall what he could, Morgan sat still in a comfortable position, and began using one of the basic breathing patterns for meditation that the book had mentioned while focusing his mind on the pressure he was feeling.
Morgan lost track of how long he was sitting like that, breathing in and out slowly and rhythmically, feeling the pressure in his chest draw him ever closer to it. He continued to be drawn in by this strange sensation, which seemed both foreign and familiar at the same time, until he pinpointed its origin point. The location was his heart, beating rhythmically to pump blood throughout his whole body, and layered over that heart was an energy he had never felt before. There were no words to describe this sensation that could do it justice.
Just as Morgan had a physical heart in that place, there also seemed to be another, ethereal heart layered over it. It simultaneously occupied the same space as his heart, and yet occupied no space at all, seeming to pump energy into his physical heart in the same way the heart pumped blood throughout his whole body.
Hmm? Pumping blood, I wonder if it could work. Morgan suddenly had an idea, he didn’t know if it would work, but it was worth a shot.
Morgan focused on the energy coming from his ethereal heart, watched it pour out into his physical heart and pool there, then decided to try his idea. He wasn’t sure how it would work, but Morgan focused intently on the energy already in his heart, willing it to attach to the blood vessels passing through the heart, and to follow them out through his arteries and veins. Much to his surprise, the energy responded strongly to Morgan’s intense will, flowing out of his heart and into the bloodstream. The further the energy spread, the more of his own body Morgan could sense, almost like a 6th sense that felt like he could see everywhere the energy spread without needing his eyes.
Ding!
-You have awakened your mana-
-Proficiency is increasing-
-Mana Lv. 1-
Morgan was too engrossed in this world of ever expanding senses to notice the sounds or alerts from the System, and continued to focus completely on moving this newfound energy throughout his body. The more the energy spread throughout his veins, carried on by his blood vessels, the more he felt that pleasant pressure all over his body.
“..gan”
“Mor…ake..up”
“Morgan!! Wake up!!”
Morgan was suddenly pulled out of the world of his own body by someone roughly shaking him while yelling. Confused, Morgan opened his eyes and looked around him.
“Thank god, you finally woke up!”
Morgan saw his best friend, Jason, standing in front of him with a concerned look on his face. Just as Morgan was about to open his mouth to ask what was wrong, his whole body was wracked with intense pain and a strong nausea overtook him. Writhing on the ground, Morgan opened his mouth and vomited stomach bile on the forest floor.
“Oh fuck! KYLE!! Come quick, there’s something wrong with Morgan!”
At the same time he heard his friend’s shouting, Morgan saw the System notifications in his vision. The first was informing him he had awakened to his mana, and he guessed the second was the reason he was feeling this way.
-Warning!-
-You are suffering from mana exhaustion, rest is recommended-
The pain began to subside, and by the time Kyle came running over, it had died down to a dull headache.
“Morgan! Are you ok?”
“Y-yeah, apparently I just exhausted my mana.”
Morgan replied to Kyle’s concerned words, but what had come out of his mouth had caused his friend an even greater shock.
“D-did you just say mana? As in, you learned to use mana!?!”
“Yeah, at least that’s what the System told me.”
Kyle just stood there with a dumbfounded look on his face as Morgan slowly stood up, still leaning against the tree for support. Morgan looked up and saw the sun about to rise over the eastern horizon.
“Holy shit, how long have I been sitting here?”
“I just got back from clearing traps with Jess, but according to the guys who were on guard duty last night, you’ve been sitting here without moving all night.”
“Are you ok man? You look like shit.”
After hearing Jason’s answer, and Kyle’s unnecessary comment, Morgan realized for the first time the state he was in. His clothes were soaked in sweat, and his hair was matted to his head, also wet with cold sweat. Although the pain had lessened, the nausea was still there, and he didn’t think it was entirely because of the mana deprivation.
Growl.
Putting his hand on his growling stomach, Morgan turned back to Jason.
“I’m fine, more importantly, you said you were clearing traps with Jess right? Please tell me we got some food.”
Nobody here had eaten in days, and Morgan felt like he might keel over any moment if he didn’t get something in his stomach sometime soon.
“Wha..? Oh, yeah. We actually got quite a lot, at least enough for everyone to have one meal.”
Jason was momentarily thrown off guard by the question, but soon realized what his friend was saying. Jason helped support Morgan, and the three of them then made their way towards the center of the large clearing they were in, where someone had managed to start a fire and was currently processing game to be cooked.
About two hours later, Morgan was sitting on the ground in a circle with his friends and Josh’s group, consisting of Derek, Cassidy, and another male student named Henry. They were all enjoying their first meal in over two days, which was mostly burnt pieces of small game animals.
“Goddamn, this is so fucking good!”
“Hmmhmm!!!”
Derek and Cassidy both offered their opinions of the food, but honestly anything would taste like heaven after going so long without food. After a while of everyone silently eating, Josh finally spoke up to break the silence.
“So, Morgan, is it true? What you said about learning to use mana?”
“Yep, at least that’s what the system said. Here, take a look.”
Morgan used the Show Status keyword to make the System message that had informed him of his awakened mana visible to everyone in the circle.
“Hooo~, you really are something else.” Derek made a sound of admiration. “So, how did you do it?”
“Hmm..it’s sort of difficult to explain in words..” Morgan thought for a moment, before describing the process he had gone through as best as he could. When he finally finished, he was met by a circle of blank, confused looks.
“Well…that certainly is difficult to grasp. I don’t even know how you’d think of something like that.”
Even Josh, a bonafide honor student, couldn’t wrap his head around the explanation Morgan had given them.
“Well, the best advice I could give would be to attempt the meditation like I did and focus your attention on your body as best as you can to try to discern any strangeness.”
All Morgan could do was offer advice on what had worked for him, but besides awakening their mana, the group had more issues to deal with.
“More importantly, what are we going to do about the Beginner Quest?”
At Morgan’s question, Josh’s expression darkened, and the rest of the group showed somewhat anxious expressions. The Beginner Quest was another System notification that they had discovered the day before.
-Initialization incomplete-
-To complete initialization, refer to Beginner Quest-
This was the message that had shown up when they first awakened to the system. And the so-called beginner quest just left them with more questions.
-Beginner Quest-
-In order to be initialized, the Summoned must draw the attention of the gods-
-Survive the Forest of the Summoned and achieve many outstanding deeds-
-Time left until barrier is dispelled: 3 weeks 4 days 16 hours-
“The only thing we can say for sure is that we have to survive here on our own for at least another three and a half weeks.” Josh’s words weren’t wrong, the rest of the notification didn’t make much sense.
“And we don’t know for sure what will happen after that, or what else we’ll have to face here.”
“True, we’ve got to do our best to prepare for anything that might come at us.”
Kyle and Henry both chimed in with their opinions. Although he wasn’t exactly one to talk, Morgan was astonished at how quickly everyone had adapted to their new surroundings. The urgency they felt about their precarious situation didn’t give anyone time to obsess over small details, and forced them into action for the sake of their own survival.
Feeling that the atmosphere was becoming more hopeless, Morgan decided to bring up something he’d been thinking about since the system first appeared.
“There are enough things to worry about when it comes to simply surviving here, so we can worry about the other stuff later. I think one of our first priorities should be finding other survivors.”
“Do you think there are others like us here?” Josh asked.
“I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think we’re the only ones here. The scale of whatever this is seems too big for just us to have been caught up in it. At the very least, I think it’s worth looking for others.”
When Morgan finished talking, Kyle chimed in from the side.
“Is there a specific reason you want to gather more people? I’m not against helping others, but with our situation, I think it would be difficult to find enough food for even more people.”
Josh looked over at Kyle with a slight frown, but didn’t say anything. He may think it was better to help as many people as he could, but he couldn’t deny that Kyle’s words had merit. Jason, however, didn’t think the same.
“Come on Kyle, if there are people out there that we can help, then we should. We just have to set more traps and work a little harder to secure more food, and we have plenty of water nearby.”
Before things could devolve into an argument between his two friends, Morgan stepped in.
“Relax big guy, Kyle isn’t entirely wrong with what he said. However, I also believe it’ll be more beneficial to bring in more able bodied people.” Morgan put an emphasis on ‘able bodied’. “Thanks to Jess and the people that have been helping her out, food and water aren’t a major issue at the moment. However, there is one other major threat we have to look out for.”
“Monsters.” Cassidy said with a dark expression on her face.
“Exactly, monsters. The ones that attacked us in the beginning didn’t seem very strong in smaller numbers, as long as we stay alert for ambushes, we should be ok. But if they come in larger numbers, or if something even more dangerous shows up, we could all be killed.”
An ominous mood descended at Morgan’s words, but he didn’t stop speaking.
“Right now we only have eleven people at best who can fight, the rest are either badly injured, or won’t be any good in a fight either way. We would have trouble holding out with that many normally, but we have to split up into even smaller teams to guard the camp in shifts, as well as guarding the people who go fetch water, as well as those that go out to collect food from the traps.”
The mood sank even lower with every word he spoke, but Morgan wasn’t done just yet.
“However, if we can gather more capable survivors, this won’t be as much of a problem. That’s why I have an idea.”
“Can we hear what it is?” Josh asked, trying to keep the hopelessness from showing on his already pale face.
“Sure,” Morgan said with a smile, “just send me out alone to look for people and bring them back.”
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