A technomancer's journey in an apocalyptic world

'Good day ma'am and thank you for agreeing to meet with us.'

'Good day, but who are you?'

'I am on behalf of our leader Javor Trifonov, he would have come here himself but he was injured greatly by a creature and as such he is no position to travel and he deeply regrets not being able to meet you personally.'

'I see but you have yet to introduce yourself.'

*an embarrassed chuckling sound* 'Ah, I am sorry where are my manner my name is Misa, Misa Jakes.'

Ryan was already feeling incredibly bored as he eavesdropped on the meeting, as he let out a yawn when all of a sudden the quest updated.

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Quest Update: Kill the Ambushers….

Penalty: Loss of family.

*******

The feeling of boredom instantly evaporated as Ryan's rifle appeared in his hands, as he looked down through the sight, before switching the mode of firing from burst to single as he aimed at the one who identified himself as Misa.

'I can kill him now but is he the one who is ambushing or are there any third party who is involved in this.'

His answer came to him quickly as soon as Ciara extend her hands to shake with Misa, a few canisters dropped from the long coat he was wearing as the area seemed to be filled with smoke obscuring everyone's view, but before Ryan could react Grace made her move as the person's head was blown to bits.

Ryan's pupils spun and moved as it enabled him to see the thermal image of the group in front of him, even with the smoke obscuring his vision he was able to see them clearly, and as such he made his move.

Michalina was already ready and in combat mode, as were the rest of her sisters-in-arms, they knew it was a highly likely chance that the meeting might evolve into a fight, yet they decided to reach out to those that have contacted them for a very simple reason of humanity and common courtesy.

Since the day Michalina had received the powers she had been experimenting with them, and upon receiving help from the masters of the craft her own creativity and powers soared, as such even if her vision was clouded she was not afraid to face the enemy as she had learned to use her powers to detect others with the help of bioelectricity, it had a smaller range of only a little over fifty meters but it was more than enough to detect her enemies.

She picked up the person nearest to her and fired her gun, splattering the person's brain matter all around her, while Michalina was busy dealing with her attacker Donna used her connections to earth to locate and deal with the one near her.

The entire thing was over as fast as it began with all the attackers lay dead only for their attention to be captured by bouts of gunshots in the distance.

"Blow the smoke away."

As Ciara shouted out her orders one of her subordinates let out a gust of wind that blew the smoke away only to be greeted by the sight of Grace straddling a person as she slit his throat with her knife before burying it deep on the person's blood and as she removed it her face was smeared by the life fluid of the person as he died.

"Check on Grace."

"Yes Major", with that one of them dashed towards her while Donna kneeled in front of the person whom she had killed.

"Is something wrong Donna?"

Donna nodded as she spoke with a frown on her face, "Yes Major, I had used my knife to kill attacker, and since Sanja would be in direct line of fire, but it seems someone else had shot him from the direction Michalina had pointed before, and no one was behind me not to mention the only guns that were fired was from Michalina and Sanja herself."

Ciara sent a sharp look towards the direction as she spoke, "Micha, you are with me, others secure take point and secure the place."

As she was about to take make a move her radio crackled as Grace's voice came in, "Major, I managed to note a third party being present here but before I could locate the person I was attacked and I am unable to locate the person."

Ciara sighed as she radioed back, "Secure the bodies and search them before burning them, we do not need any more undead."

It did not take them much time to reach the place where Ryan was present a moment ago, even though the snow was slowly piling up on the human-shaped dent it was not fast enough for them not to take notice of it.

Ciara stared at the human-shaped depression on the ground with a stoic look on her face while Michalina drew her attention towards another depression and set of tyre tracks on the snow.

"Micha who do you think our third party is?"

"Major, as far as I know the only modern day vehicles are available is in our base and the depression is…"

Ciara closed her eyes as she spoke, "I hope he has a damn good reason otherwise I will put him over my knees and tan his hide."

Meanwhile, back in Fort Genesis, a class for healers was being held with Shakidra being the instructor who was giving the lecture and was now answering everyone's questions when one of them raised her hand drawing her attention.

Shakidra gave a small smile and a nod which made the person continue, "I wanted to ask if there is any way to resurrect someone."

Shakidra's smile disappeared as she let loose a bit of her killing intent as she spoke, "Why do you wish to know such a thing?"

"I-I-I…."

As the girl stammered while the rest of them others shivered with fear while quite a few shot her a look of annoyance as Shakidra spoke, "I repeat again, miss, why do you wish to know such a thing?"

"I.. I was just curious I thought with the help of magic since we can do so much wonderful things maybe we can even bring people back to life."

"That is a very dangerous thought you are having young lady, if you try to break the natural cycle of life you will earn the ire of Goddess of Death and she happens to be one of the most unforgiving person.", hearing her words the one who asked the question let out a small shiver.

Shakidra gained an amused look on her face as she spoke, "However, there is indeed way to resurrect someone from dying."

Upon saying that Shakidra managed to garner herself the undivided attention of her listeners, especially the earthlings as Catherine blurted out loud, "There has to be some catch."

Shakidra beamed at Catherine as she spoke, "You have a good head on your shoulder, yes there are some terrible catches to it, firstly you can only resurrect someone who has died not more than an hour ago, secondly it takes huge amount of mana to do so, thirdly these that are revived are not only greatly weakened but if the cause of death has not been eliminated then everything is moot."

Another person raised their hand as Shakidra gave a nod as she spoke, "Yes."

"Ma'am what do you mean by the cause of death."

Shakidra tapped her chin as she spoke with a frown, "Let us consider the situation, a person died from poison and you resurrected him but you did not flush out the poison from that person so tell me what will happen?"

The person who had asked her the question paled before he answered back, "The person would die."

Shakidra gave a nod as she spoke, "Exactly, that person would die and the resurrection spell will not work on him for a long time, as such remember when resurrecting someone make sure whatever ailment the person had is healed."

"Why is that? Why can we not use the resurrection spell on someone again in quick succession?"

Shakidra looked at Catherine as she spoke, "You are recalling a departed soul that causes a huge strain on the said soul as such you cannot recall it back, the fastest you can do is within seven days but below that it would not work."

Catherine raised her hand drawing Shakidra's attention and upon receiving a nod she continued, "You said it takes huge amount of mana to do so, by hug you mean how much."

"Ah about that sorry but I have to rephrase my sentence, it takes huge amount of mana as well as concentration to pull it off, and by huge I mean I have seen a Tier 100 person dying without being able to resurrect the person he was trying to so it is not something you should try for a very very long time."

Her eyes roamed over her those who were attending her lectures as she spoke, "I know your instructors have said it before but those who are learning about magic please remember that magic is fuelled by your Mana and when you run out of Mana it is fueled by your vitality, your life force and when you will run out of your life force you will die."

A familiar girl raised her hand drawing her attention and upon being permitted she spoke again, "Can we resurrect many people at once."

Shakidra's eyes narrowed dangerously as she spoke, "Aren't you quite curious about things regarding resurrection?

The girl blushed as Shakidra continued with a small smile on her face, "It is good to be curious after all without curiosity how would those great inventors invent.", her smile disappeared as a dark scowl appeared on her face as she spoke, "However if in your pursuit of knowledge you cross the moral boundary you will be dealt with."

Shakidra took a deep breath as she began to speak again, "Upon saying that, yes it is possible the record for mass resurrection was made a thousand five hundred years ago by a Princess who saw a war, saw deaths of many, she gave away her own life to resurrect as many as she could can anyone guess how many she was able to resurrect at the cost of her life, how many people were brought back to life and which caused a record that has yet to be broken even after a millennia and half."

She expectedly looked at those she was giving lecture to and soon found herself bombarded with various figures as her smile widened before she raised her hand to stop them as she spoke, "Yes, yes thank for all those numbers but unfortunately the number is very low three men and a horse, even though the horse passed away again from its injuries."

A stunned silence descended amongst them as Shakidra spoke, "Well I think today I have given enough lecture so I will take my leave, and as for you all, you will be told about what to do next by your trainers.", with that she stood up from her seat as she left.

Meanwhile back with a certain Apostle he revved up his bike as he dashed throw what now seemed to have evolved into a snowstorm, even with his various enhancement it is was impossible to view correctly not to mention the drop of temperature that made his bones shiver, yet he pressed forward towards his destination, which was further away from the 'Gate of New Hope', and the reason for that was simple his quest update and he received a new set of instructions.

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Quest Update: Save the Meet Party…

The people whom your mother was supposed to meet had been captured, save them.

Failure: Extreme Disappointment from God Avtis

Reach them within stipulated time: 5:00 min.

*********

As Ryan moved as fast as he could under such extreme weather conditions he could not help but let out a groan if it were any other time such conditions would not have matter but with the rampaging snowstorm, things have changed.

'Those bastards because of them I have to work here out in the cold when I get my hands on them I will make them cry for their mommy or else my name is not Ryan.'