Chapter 40: How do you sow with mana?

It was the next day and they were all hungover from partying.

They bought replacement armor for Brian. They also bought a shotgun for Lucas to use instead of his assault rifle. And they bought more bullets as well. Lots of bullets.

They now had to find Howard to figure out who shot them. And do more grinding in the game world.

“So this is the one you met him at?” Lucas said.

They were outside one of Howard’s bars.

“Yeah. Let’s go in,” Brian said

They went inside the bar and asked if Howard was around. He wasn’t. They asked for his phone number. They tried calling his phone but he didn’t respond. Instead they left text messages and also asked the staff to tell him they were looking for him and wanted to find out who shot them. Howard’s staff were very surprised at hearing the last part.

After gearing up in the metal rooms, they all checked the time on their phones and entered the game at the same time.

The three boogeymen dressed in all black were now back in the stone plaza.

They took a moment to look around. The stone plaza seemed less lively than last time they were here when Jack killed Paul.

The stalls were still there but half of them were empty. All of the people at the plaza eyed the trio. A few people had their hands on their holsters.

“Maybe we should start doing like Fernando did and get all these people to bring us crystals. If I get mental skills I can create something like slaves,” Lucas said.

“Sounds like a lot of extra work,” Brian said.

“I think the system only rewards innovation and doing new shit. This seems like something it would find boring,” Jack said.

“What do you mean? Isn’t this more exciting? Having your own city and people bringing in crystals?” Lucas said.

“Maybe we can rob people for their crystals. But there’s not many people out grinding anyways. We almost never see anybody. They’d rather waste time here in the plaza by making fucking stalls,” Brian said.

“Let’s head out before anybody decides to shoot at us. Let’s use the grasshopper gate this time and then run over to the balloon monster zone. See if it makes it harder to find us,” Jack said.

Brian looked over at the empty stall where Annie was yesterday.

…

Sewing: Rank 1

“I guess it’s useful. But I’d rather have something magical,” Jack said, after popping the skill crystal and seeing the yellow energy flow into his hand.

“What did it teach you?” Brian said.

“Like just generally about how to sew. And I feel like I’ve done it before. Threading needles. Doing stitches. That kind of stuff. I think I can do a lot with this skill actually. Though didn’t teach me anything about making clothes, just sewing,” Jack said.

“Maybe you can sow with your mana,” Lucas said.

That sounds interesting actually.

They were taking a break from grinding balloon monsters, so Jack thought why not and actually tried sewing with his mana.

He created a very big and bulky and messy string of mana. Then he imagined sewing with it inside his stomach just like his skill taught him. He sewed from the core in his stomach where the mana was coming out until about 10 centimeters to the side of his stomach. Nothing happened, but it was a fun exercise. A few times the mana string kept breaking because he was bad at concentrating on it.

Jack for fun tried making a circle. But it looked ugly. Like it wasn’t a full circle because of the way it had to connect to his mana core. She he decided to let it all dissolve and then remade the small messy string into a circle starting and ending in his core.

As soon as he looped back and attatched the string  to his core, it changed form and turned into a kind of circulation where the mana constantly looped around.

The feeling felt warm in his stomach.

“We are fucking idiots! When I made the healing mana blueprint, all I had to do was loop it back to my core and it would automatically power itself. Fucking stupid,” Jack said, and explained the intricacies of mana he just figured out.

What can I do with this circle then? I am 100% sure that the feeling of warmth in my stomach is real and not just a sensation. Though this is kind of hard to maintain. Not flowing the mana into the circle but maintaining the circle itself. It feels like if I don’t concentrate it will mess up somehow.

They finished grinding and went back to the real world.

They saw that Howard had left them a message.

////////

Jack:

Knife Fighting: Rank 1

Knife Fighting: Rank 2

Python (programming language): Rank 1

Mana Generation: Rank 1

Sand to Glass Conversion Mana Blueprint: Rank 1

Healing Mana Blueprint: Rank 1

Origami: Rank 1

Enhanced Bodily Recovery: Rank 1

Speed Counting: Rank 1

Enemy Weakness Identification: Rank 1

Poetry: Rank 2

Blueprint visualizer: Rank 1

Mana Sense: Rank 1

Blunt Force Resistance: Rank 1

Pool: Rank 1

Mana Manipulation: Rank 1

Specialized Mental Sacrifice Ritual Focus Borrow: Rank 1

Typography: Rank 1

Enhanced Healing: Rank 1

Throwing: Rank 1

Acrobatics: Rank 1

INT: +1

Missions Menu unlocked.

Sewing: Rank 1

Brian:

Shield Defending: Rank 1

Marksmanship (pistol): Rank 1

Right Arm Increased Strength: Rank 1

Mana manipulation: Rank 1

Mana Sense: Rank 1

Enhanced Propriosense in Toes: Rank 1

Enhanced Bodily Recovery: Rank 1

Flame Shield Dispel: Rank 1

Cryptography: Rank 1

Enemy Pattern Recognition: Rank 1

Airplane Pilot: Rank 1

Mana Generation: Rank 1

Enhanced Vision: Rank 1

Blunt Force Resistance: Rank 1

Finnish: Rank 1

French oil painting technique: Rank 1

Throwing: Rank 1

Acrobatics: Rank 1

Vision Upgrade: ⅕ until Rank 1

Lucas:

Insect Movement Control: Rank 1

Enlarged Penis: Rank 1

Mana sense: Rank 1

Mana Manipulation: Rank 1

Surfing: Rank 1

Arithmetic: Rank 1

Chess: Rank 1

Human Interpersonal Non-verbal Bodily Social  Behaviors Enhanced Perception: Rank 1

Blunt Force Resistance: Rank 1

Changing car tires: Rank 1

Water Mana Affinity: Rank 1

Walking: Rank 1

Mana Generation: Rank 1

Juggling: Rank 1

Throwing: Rank 1

Acrobatics: Rank 1

Enhanced General Nervous System Reaction Time: Rank 1

Diesel Motors Piston System: Rank 1