Reincarnated as a mana core

Otjag

Rewritten: 15.06.2022 18:30 CET

Argul does age, but his core regeneration continuously repairs any damage, even aging damage. It would take several thousand years in a mana-less environment without any of his generation for Argul to die of old age.

Excerpt out of Alyra’s book Useless Knowledge

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Argul POV

Thankfully the guy agreed to help them. After having been asked, he told her that the nearest village he knew of was a bit more than a day's walk away from them.

Before taking any further actions she looked through her status.

Quest completed:

• Clothes!!!!!!!!!!
  • You now have something to wear. Congratulations!
  • Depending on the clothes you wear, you will get an appearance enhancement in the form of a curse. (skill: aspect clothes) Str +1

Curse of fierce beauty added!

Argul’s eye twitched a bit and she looked at Alyra, who was pointedly not looking at her. She would remember that.

Quest completed:

• Did someone say guns?
  • You saved someone from waking up alone in a forest who will now guide you to the next village.
  • Int +1, Wis +1

Skill created:

• Cleaning

• • This skill will help in everything that is considered cleaning. For you especially while cleaning with spells as you are a hopeless case otherwise.

Argul sighed. The system seemed to feel particularly funny today.

New subquest:

• Village ahoy
  • Rescue as many villagers as possible!

She hummed to herself, that was definitely her next destination.

Status

Argul closed her status. The list of skills she had was already becoming painfully long so she decided to organize some skills into categories. That way only the category would show and she would need to look a bit harder to see all her skills.

Speaking of status, she looked at Arthur who was still laying on the ground. “Have you already checked your status? You might have completed a quest and become a bit stronger.” 

She hoped she could distract him a bit longer. He seemed to be in no condition to move by himself and he had just been forced to kill five people he likely knew. The moment that kicked in he was going to need time for himself.

Arthur looked at Argul and then at something only he could see. “Huh? You are right.”

She could barely understand his next words. “It’s all like a game. Maybe a dream?”

Argul shook her head, that was not good. She was okay with him being devastated and wanting to mourn. Actually she needed him to mourn or it would fester silently in his heart. 

She pushed herself off of the tree she was leaning against and walked over to Arthur. On the way she put her arm through the strap of the rifle so she could carry it on her back. When Argul reached Arthur she looked down at him for a second.

The man was a mess. His skin was practically blue from all the bruises and his eyes were empty of any emotion. She could understand. The corrupted looked horrifying and he had likely seen them mutade. There was a bluish bump on his forehead where he had impacted the ground.

Argul crouched down next to him and grabbed his hand. “Alright boy. I’m going to lay you down somewhere more comfortable.” 

Arthur just grunted.

She picked him up in a princess carry with some difficulties and walked over to Alyra. They looked each other in the eyes for a second, which said everything that needed to be said. If they wanted to rescue more people they needed to go on and Argul didn’t want to expose her fox form, so Alyra would need to carry Arthur.

She heaved Arthur on Alyra’s back and turned him on his belly, so he could hold himself if they needed to run. Alyra stood as tall as Argul which made the whole thing a bit harder for Argul.

Once she had Arthur situated she turned around to grab the sport bag. There was no need to leave his stuff behind right now.

She turned to Arthur and tried to sound as soothing as possible. “Arthur, you can have all the time you want to mourn and think about what has happened today, but please lead us to the village you told us about while mourning. There are others that also need help.”

Argul had at least tried. Hopefully giving him something important to focus on will help.

Arthur looked at her and his eyes became a bit more focused. “Right.” His voice cracked a bit. “There are others.” He was trying hard not to cry and pointed in a direction a bit to the right of his flight path. “That way is the village.”

Argul pitied him a lot and knew there would be more people he would pity. She stepped near Alyra again and took Arthur's hand. He looked at her and Argul looked him directly in the eyes. “Let it out. Nobody is going to judge you here if you cry now and you will feel better afterwards.”

Argul hoped it would help and he wouldn’t just feel hollow. This generation was going to be a mess.

Arthur looked away from Argul, a grim expression on his face, but Argul had seen the tears and smiled. Even if he did it silent, it would help.

They started their journey in a heavy silence. Argul was jogging at a pace she could hopefully sustain with all the things she was carrying. 

She could give it to Alyra, but didn’t want to use her daughter as a packhorse and instead give her a feeling that she wasn’t the only one who had to carry stuff. It was illogical, but Argul tried to be a bit more emphatical than in his last life.

As they tracked through the forest Argul absentmindedly identified one of the birch trees.

Birch tree

A large plant. This tree grows in temperate climates. It is possible to produce tar with this plant.

She was sure she knew more about them. Argul thought about it for a moment and realized, no she did not. Still the tar could be useful to shield wood or leather from water, not that she knew exactly how to produce it.

Argul thought about this and that until she remembered that Arthur’s firearms exploded when he used them. It made the rifle on her back kind of useless. Or did it?

What if… She created a magic missile and then compressed it down to the diameter of a bullet. When she aimed at a random tree and shot, Argul missed by a wide margin.

She stopped running and took the rifle. Alyra looked at her confused and then stopped too. Argul aimed the long and heavy rifle. Then she created another bullet in the rifle and connected the shooting command to the trigger. 

Argul pulled. “Bam!” The bullet hit the 50m distant tree she had aimed at and punched right through. Unlike her normal magic missiles though, it didn't stop there and continued to sail through the forest at a fast pace, not caring about anything in its way. 

Argul lost sight of it and grinned. No need to do things the normal way.

Arthur had watched the whole thing and was a bit shocked. Argul had held the rifle completely wrong, but still somehow managed to hit. Hell, she hadn’t even used the scope of his sniper! 

Alyra on the other hand was still trying to process the scene of Argul pulling the trigger and saying bam without cringing.

Argul got a few notifications.

Skill created:

• magic gunning

• • This skill will help improve your magic gunning. Hopefully one day you will do it right and your gun won’t just be a tool to aim for you.

Subskill created:

• neutral magic sniper bullet

• • You create a sniper bullet with mana. This skill will help you improve doing so.

She had always wanted to hold a rifle and now she has one. Argul cleared her throat and looked at Arthur. “You don’t mind if I keep this one do you?”

Arthur blinked at her. He opened his mouth and closed it again, then he sighed. “That’s my favorite rifle you know and also my last one so no, I want it back.”

Argul pouted and her tail and ears drooped. “Also you are holding it completely wrong.”

She blushed and looked away. Alyra barked a laugh. “Hah, I knew it!”

She motioned with her head in front of them. “Let’s continue shall we?”

Argul just nodded and ran behind them not wanting to be in their field of view. She put the rifle back on her back.

Something moved in the sports bag and scared the shit out of Argul. She gingerly opened it, hoping not to find some weird insect. Aina jumped out of the bag on Argul’s chest and nearly gave her a heart attack. “Gah!”

She caught Aina out of reflex and realized she had forgotten the poor slime. Argul was ashamed of herself and tried to comfort Aina by hugging her.

After that the trip was super boring for Argul. There was nothing but birch trees everywhere and she wanted to give Arthur some time, so she couldn’t talk to anyone to keep the silence. After a while she just started to plan her next floor. The only thing that disrupted the silence was Arthur occasionally bringing them back on course.

Argul wondered how in the nine hells he was able to know where they were if everything around them looked the same, but maybe it came with being outside a lot. That was something she couldn’t exactly say of herself.

When the sun began setting Argul couldn’t take the silence anymore. “So, nice weather today isn’t it?”

How do you start a conversation without being awkward again? 

Alyra snorted and Arthur showed no reaction. Argul blushed a bit and her tail wagged a bit. She nonetheless tried again. “Where are you from? Alyra and I are from germany.”

Arthur sighed. “Ecuador.”

Oh, so south america. Argul had never been there. Actually she had never been on another continent. “How is living there? Have you been some kind of gangster or were you always a soldier?” She was interested in his life, though not very keen on talking about her own. Her perspective was likely screwed up.

Arthur snorted, though it didn’t sound like he was very amused. “So what if I have been - What did you call it?” His tone was trenched in sarcasm. “A gangster”

Argul was a bit taken aback. “Ehh? Actually nothing, I was just interested and the current silence is depressing.”

Arthur finally turned to face her and put pressure on a painful spot. He grumbled annoyed. “I have been a drug dealer and since getting teleported to this planet I’m a scout.”  

Arthur looked her in the face again and it was clear that he did not want to continue this conversation. “Satisfied?”

She smiled at him. “Yup!” Argul decided to leave him alone, she wasn’t on the same wavelength as him.

Alyra, though, had found a new target to mess with. “Erod, the planet's name is Erod.”

Arthur turned to her a bit puzzled. “How do you even know?”

Alyra grinned, making it obvious that she was enjoying this. “Ahh, if only you knew. Poor soul.”

Arthur gave her a stink eye. He looked around and then pointed a bit to the left of them. “The village is in that direction.”

It became silent again for a few moments until Arthur’s belly rumbled. He looked away from the two girls and Alyra sniffed the air. “Do I”, she sniffed again, “Do I smell hunger?”.

Argul laughed, brightening the atmosphere with the sound. Arthur turned his head back around and stared at her, offended. “You know, for all of your fierce looks, you are surprisingly naive and easy going.”

Argul blurted the next thing out without thinking and winked. “Ohh, do you want to know how fierce I can be?”

Alyra spluttered, not having expected that. Arthur raised an eyebrow, just wow. Argul slowly realized what she had said and blushed hard. Then she held Aina before her face, shielding herself from the evil of the world.

She meekly tried to push the focus on a different topic. “How about we make camp for tonight.”

She was somewhat successful. Arthur sighed and laid back down on Alyra’s back. “At least someone will be cooking for me today.”

Argul put Aina on the sports bag and crossed her arms, still running. “That’s sexist.”

Alyra nodded sagely and her tone became condescending. “Sadly my dear Arthur, you are traveling with two females who know as much about cooking as they know about their surroundings.”

A groan followed by laughter sounded through the forest.