cerim
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Chapter 453 - One of us
🕑 Added 2024-09-24 08:31:06 +0000 UTCPassive Skill: Mana Pulse Circulation (Low Arcane)
The user's mana pathways are not only enhanced but supercharged with pulsating mana, passively optimizing all their physiological functions. This results in vastly increased stamina, increased energy reserves, and near instantaneous healing of minor to moderate injuries. The effects scale exponentially with mana, and the constant high-speed circulation of mana through the brain grants heightened cognitive clarity.
Passive Skill: Mana Veil (Low Arcane)
The user becomes nearly imperceptible to all forms of magical and physical detection, making them almost impossible to locate by normal or supernatural means. The veil not only blurs their outline but also distorts light and sound to the point of making the user appear invisible to the naked eye. Incoming attacks are not only distorted but are also partially redirected or nullified, and disrupting their mana flow becomes an almost futile effort.
Passive Skill: Mana-Fortified Mind (Low Arcane)
The user's mind becomes an impenetrable fortress, fortified by impossibly complex mana weaves. This passive grants immense resistance to all forms of mental attacks, including illusions, mind control, and psychic attacks. Additionally, the passive allows the user's mind to endure the immense strain of using powerful skills and traits.
Passive Skill: Thermal Rebirth Matrix (Low Arcane)
The Thermal Rebirth Matrix allows absorbing and converting ambient and internal heat at an exceptional rate. The user can regenerate from grievous injuries, including regrowing entire limbs and organs, almost within moments. This process also detoxifies the body from any poison or harmful substance. The user now possesses high resistance to all but the most extreme flame and heat-based attacks, making them virtually impervious to most forms of thermal damage.
Passive Skill: Mana Sculptor (Low Arcane)
The user becomes a Mana Sculptor and can shape mana into intricate and versatile constructs. These constructs maintain exceptional durability and adaptability while gaining enhanced precision and refinement. The user can now create more complex forms that serve a wider variety of purposes. These constructs possess special properties like self-repair and operate with improved efficiency and stability, allowing for longer-lasting creations without additional mana expenditure.
These are the passives I’m seriously considering.
Some mana-based healing, body strengthening and some overall improvement.
Mana-based mind protection and improvement to cognitive abilities.
Healing passive based on thermal energy, and the Mana Sculptor thingy I also liked a lot.
The dark horse is mana veil, where the part about distortion of incoming attacks interests me, as well as hiding my mana, which I think will be more and more important until I’m strong enough.
Overall, any of these passives could give me a huge boost. As always, the descriptions are mostly simple.
With a few changes, they might even seem like epic passives, but the term 'arcane' in their name speaks volumes. You could easily have a passive with 'rare' in the name and almost the exact same description, yet the difference between the two would be immense.
Even so, I, as always, think of them as a tool offered I could learn from. Sure, it’s a goddamn arcane passive and I’m quite sure not that many people have it.
Getting it before level 300 could also improve the Primary classes I get offered when I get there. And over the months or years, I could learn to do what the passive does on my own. Maybe even some active healing skill, right? Right?
They are all low arcane, so there is also the option to wait and get mid arcane, but I bet if I did that and got to mid arcane, I would think about waiting for upper arcane.
Tough times indeed. First world problems: too many good passives to pick from.
“Biscuit, I’m annoyed and indecisive,” I groan and lay with my back against the rocky ground.
The cute corgi leaves his pile of items that he was selling. It’s an interesting fact as it’s the first time I see him interact with the system this way. Well, he could use the Community, so it’s not too big of a surprise, but some functions still seem to be locked for him, I think.
His cold nose boops into my ear, and I can hear him breathing and sniffing before he moves to the side and licks my temple.
He then lays down as well, his chin against my neck where I lift my hand and start absent-mindedly petting his back. I can feel his warm breath against the bottom of my chin, and it tickles, but I let it be.
For a while I rest like that.
“So, how is the group?” I ask out loud.
“Not that well after the Mana Desert.” The tone Dennis says this with is solemn, and his brother is quiet. I can imagine him silently nodding.
“Sophie took Izzy and left the group after a fight with Tess,” Aaron confirms.
“I see.”
“You don’t seem surprised at all,” Dennis says, though he looks surprised himself.
This time, I decide to ignore it and just shrug, but gently, to not interrupt Biscuit’s rest.
“I think about some things a lot, you know, you twerp. And if you’re worried about it, don’t be. You may not have noticed, but Tess can be a bit naive at times and sometimes pushes things too far. Still, she's a good person, and Sophie knows that.”
“They could solve it with a bikini mud fight,” Aaron sighs as well.
Right now, I'd love to see the expression Lily is surely giving him, but I can't interrupt the future Absolute's rest to look.
“How is Min-Jae?” I poke, and as expected, it gets quiet.
“They tried to apologize, but he told them to—how was it?—to ‘eat shit,’” Lily answers instead of the twins.
"Kim can be really stubborn when he wants to," Aaron grumbles.
"Those orbs he shot at us really hurt," Dennis adds.
As it starts turning darker, I pop up a bigger thermal orb and reduce the light it generates.
For fun, I turn it into a cube as big as my fists put together. I play with it a bit longer until the thermal energy inside of it changes. The light shifts and fluctuates in a similar way to how a campfire would.
A bit more work later, even the heat it radiates slightly changes, just as the flames would. Sometimes the heat hits one place stronger than the other. I tried to come up with a way to add some sound effects with kinetic energy, but so far, I have failed.
Standing up with Biscuit in my arms, I create manabloc chairs for each of us, our spot close to the huge boulder.
As they sit in the chairs, I concentrate a bit more and make them a bit more moldable so they react to the weight and slightly change shape. Then I fixate them, each chair perfectly fitting the position they’re sitting in.
“Manabloc chair, you said, right?” Aaron giggles quietly, but there isn’t that much eagerness in it.
As Biscuit drifts off to sleep, I form a mana arm that stretches out to grab a blanket and gently drape it over him, leaving only his head peeking out. Then, I begin petting him softly.
Biscuit occasionally twitches and lets out soft woofs in his sleep, but gradually relaxes as I keep running my hand over him.
An hour passes in silence, and it's strangely comfortable to just sit there after two weeks of crafting and training.
The steady rise and fall of his breathing becomes the only sound, and for the first time in a while, I let myself relax, enjoying the quiet break from it all.
I carefully break that silence while looking at the corgi in my arms, “When Biscuit was just a small pup, the granddaughter of his owner often liked to leave him out in the snow, rain, or without food for a long time. Then she recorded as she ‘saved’ him. Probably videos like: Saving a cute corgi pup from rain and bathing him in warm water. Saving a cute corgi pup from snow and making him warm. Finding a hungry cute corgi pup outside and feeding him. The last is something she did the most. I think she always made a new account and posted the videos in hopes it went viral, and for her to then kickstart her ‘career’ and get some eyes on her.” I nearly spit the words out.
After gently booping Biscuit’s nose I look at Lily and the twins, who seem to be unable to say anything.
“She likely never had a viral break, so she kept trying until she got bored after a year or two, giving Biscuit to grandparents whose place she lived—and who must have known.”
I pause for a moment to calm myself down, and only when my hand doesn’t feel like I want to punch someone do I put it back on Biscuit’s head.
“Being a pup and normal dog, Biscuit never understood. He shared with me some images and feelings he had back then, so I know a bit.” My eyes meet Lily’s. “He was always happy when she took him from the rain or snow, when she fed him food after starving him. He loved that person. How silly is that.”
No one says anything for a while, and I increase the output of my thermal cube, the light flickering in the night.
“Aaron and I come from a very wealthy family,” Dennis is the first to break the silence. He and his brother exchange messages through their link before he continues, “And by wealthy, I mean tens of millions rich. Well, we were, you could say.”
There’s a smile on his face as he shyly continues, “Our parents died when we were even younger than Isabella, and since then, our family passed us around. Grandpa wasn’t that bad, and we spent a few nice years with him. Then he died, and we got sent to our uncle and then aunt.”
Aaron joins in, “She always hated our parents but didn’t mind taking us in. You know, it meant she could take a bite of all that money we got left.”
“She and everyone else who could. Father’s old friend, distant family, state, city, accountants—they all made sure plenty of it got lost.”
“We never saw a cent of it. There’s some in locked accounts, but most of it is gone.”
“Aunt took care of it.” Dennis smiles even wider. “She also liked to show us how she despised the two brats of her ‘whore’ sister,” he reaches his hand over his shoulder and taps his back, “We have plenty of scars to prove it. Of course, nothing too visible, we wouldn’t want people to start asking and take us from her.”
“Us and the money.”
“And the money,” Dennis confirms.
Aaron leans back, eyes distant, as if recalling memories he’d rather keep buried.
There’s a shared understanding between the twins, the kind that comes from years of unspoken pain, but they don't linger on it for long.
The casual way they speak about their past almost makes it sound normal, like they've long since accepted the unfairness of it all.
It’s clear they’ve grown used to brushing off the hurt with forced smiles, but the quiet tension tells a different story.
Hearing soft sobs, we turn to see Lily wiping her eyes with her sleeves. "I didn’t know," she mumbles. "I didn’t know any of that."
“It’s not like we go around telling people,” Dennis smirks, his blue eyes catching the light from my cube.
“We mostly kept it to ourselves,” Aaron adds. “It’s not exactly easy to talk about.”
Dennis looks at his brother. “But we always had each other, no matter what happened. I hate that creep sometimes, but hey, we’re in this together.”
“Dennis is a dick, but hey, at least I can do some evil things and blame it on him.” Aaron nods seriously and turns to Lily. “So what about you? Everyone here seems to be kind of messed up. Tess with what she did, Kim mentioned something, poor Biscuit—and I bet Nat also has a thing or two, looking at how he and his sister behave.”
With curiosity, I watch as Lily hesitates, but the twins wait together with me.
She starts softly, “It wasn’t until much later that I realized my father and I were poor. He was hardly ever home, there was always so little food, and our apartment was either freezing or unbearably hot. I couldn’t leave because it wasn’t safe outside. For years, my only friend was Grumpy, my cat.”
I increase the warmth from my cube, and we all sit quietly, soaking it in for a moment.
“They eventually took me away from my father and placed me with a new family, along with Grumpy and I haven’t seen my dad in years. The people I’m with now are kind, there’s always food, and I’m not cold anymore. But over time, the way they treated me changed. I wasn’t behaving how they wanted. ‘Why don’t you smile more, Lily?’ ‘Why are you so quiet, Lily?’ ‘Why doesn’t your father ever visit you, Lily?’ ‘Why, why, why, why, why.’”
She swallows hard, her voice catching, but then she smiles as she looks at the twins, and then at me.
“When I get back to Earth, I hope Grumpy is still alive. He’ll be old, but cats like him can live up to 20 years. I know it! I’ll make him immortal, I’ll make him young again, and then we’ll be together just like before.”
For the last time, she wipes her eyes, “I know it’s childish, but this is something I hope for. So, am I messed up as well, Aaron?”
“Totally messed up, Lily. A fitting member of group 4,” Aaron confirms with a nod.
Slowly, the conversation shifts to other topics, and I notice they deliberately avoid asking about my past.
It’s more comfortable that way, and I feel a quiet sense of relief, so I let it slide.
Then something cold pokes my left hand, the pale one.
I look down and my eyes meet Biscuit’s.
He doesn’t say anything, but pokes me again and again.
Firmly. Gently.
My conversation with Tess that we had in the caves under the Mana Desert comes to mind.
The silence stretches on, but no one pushes me to speak.
“My father was a drunkard who kept beating my mom and my sister, who always protected me even if she got beaten more.”
All conversation stops, but I don’t look up, continuing to stare at Biscuit. He returns my gaze.
A gentle little soul with a terrible past, just like all of us.
“I tried to kill him one day, but I couldn’t do it. I still remembered how he was when I was much younger. Our visit to the zoo, where he bought us the tastiest ice cream I ever had. The time he carried me on his shoulders when my legs hurt from walking. The perfect sunny day in the park. The time he and Mom danced in the kitchen after we moved to a new place—they were both so beautiful then. The times he put me and Vic to bed and gently kissed our foreheads.”
Another cold-feeling poke against my hand.
“My sister killed him in the end. Because I couldn’t and because he would’ve killed our mom one day otherwise. Since then, she’s been in prison, and I was called the brother of a murderer.”
Biscuit licks my arm, and I ruffle his head, lifting my head up. “Am I messed up as well?”
“Very messed up indeed,” Dennis nods.
“Terribly messed up,” Lily whispers quietly, her big eyes on me.
“The same as the rest of us,” Aaron says. “A fitting member of group 4.”
(Food!)
I look down at him and feel myself smile, "You as well, Biscuit. One of us."
***
Comments
BJ
Wow you trying to start my day with tears and I love it.
Victor Augusto Dantas Ferreira
There was a flashback already, she was bullied at school abused by her mom and alone. That's why she wants the group to be together so much, she never had friends. Sophia, Izzy and Maya are the missing links now.
dampsey damamme
Best Chara build ever 👍✨
dampsey damamme
Ooooooooh god, my face leaking water 😭
Mr.Spooks
Forgot about the passives because the chapter was so good lol
Austin T Delpier
TFTC. This was a great character building chapter but I also can't wait to see what biscuit does with all his shards
Konrad Pagacz
This is a really great chapter. The beginning of the chapter is an obvious litRPG bloat, but the second part has some real literary value to it. One of the first I have noticed in this series. Nice use of: focus on the appearance instead of emotions, short sentences to signify the intensity of the dialogue, portray perfectly the "brave in the face of complete despair" attitude. It brought tears to my eyes, good job! I mean the tricks are well known, but for the first time reading this book I felt like you have become a writer instead of just a GM on a nice DND adventure.
PoeticSaint
Us. To belong. To share. To commiserate. To uplift. To strengthen. No longer alone. 😖😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😭
RJ
Biscuit is the best!
Gio
I'll give an example, an exponential formula goes like this: f(x) = a*(r)^x In our case a: base power of the skill r: growth multiplier per mana unit x: mana amount for scaling If for example, we say the base power of the skill is 100, growth is 1.001 then x is 1000, power =~ 272 x is 2000, power =~ 738 x is 4000, power =~ 5449 x is 8000, power =~ 296907 x is 16000, power =~ 881535221 Now you gotta ask yourself, at what power level is this skill useful? Because it grows really slowly before it's useful and really fast after it's useful.
Joseph Serret
But you forget sir, that if with this passive his mana buffa his constitution amd mental stats, he can put more mana stats ( admittedly, this has never stopped him from ignoring con anyway (garbage stat) into every level up without exploding, menanjng this pasive, by virtue of having mana, equals more mana
Gio
Do you even know the difference between exponential and quadratic growth? Which of these two do you think is more? 2^100 (exponential) or 100^2 (quadratic) (not trying to be mean; just informative ;p)
Zaim İpek
@Gio You may be thinking of quadratic growth, or you are using arbitrarily small exponents to the point where the skill wouldn't be ranked as Arcane.
Zaim İpek
No, the points into mana would be exactly the same unfortunately. It would be nice if there was a mana boosting passive that made it regenerate faster or something.
Zaim İpek
@Sam No, it would just make his gains less and require him to spend more mana on making his body training strong enough to be effective. This is why he removed his self-made body strengthening construct earlier.
SqrlyGrly
It is completely possible that the abuse and the happy memories happened in the same time period. Even abusers are capable of kindness sometimes. It's what gives their victims hope that things will change and keeps them there.
Ronnel
Thanks for the Chapter Cerim. It's wierd to think perfectly happy family can just turn into an abusive one, but I know it can. Stress, failure, giving up, or maybe betrayal can lead to stuff like that. It's also possible that Nat's happy memories are somehow 'forged' from wishing someting better.. but since his sister also seems to recall the happy days, it might be real and something happened and turned their father into an abusive one.. Regardless of the reason, the world would be a slightly better place if they are gone.
Blaxxun
I really liked the chapter, great bonding
Blaxxun
Wait, it does say exponentially..
Pletter
May she be forgotten in irrelevance.
Subliminary
Now we just need to find out what Tess’ “thing” is
Mark Bullock
I hate the drama in stories... except yours.. bravo!
Gio
You're thinking too small, exponential growth means it grows very slowly (useless), until it grows very quickly (overpowered), with very little inbetween. like a horizontally flipped L shape. If it was actually exponential, he'd be able to beat people a million levels higher than him.
RingoSeto
his mind is his alone.... that issue with sophia...
RingoSeto
my thoughts are his pride will make him choose either mana Fortified mind or mana pulse
Kevin McGuire
Thanks!
jax rammus
He told her that, not knowing that his father came back before he did, and that she had already killed him.
jax rammus
Don't think the feels trip distracted me from you not making a choice on those arcane passives, pal!
SAB
"Passive Skill: Mana Pulse Circulation [...] The effects scale exponentially with mana" Winner.
Zaim İpek
The bus was taking them all to a mental institution probably.
Zaim İpek
@Gio You are probably right considering nothing else in the story has exponential scaling as it would break the story structure. Get enough mana, and beat up a champion 100 levels higher than yourself. 😂 Yeah, this is definitely a case of author missusing the word.
George Campbell
I *hate* that girl and what she did to Biscuit, oh my god. How dare she?
Zaim İpek
It would ruin his training, so bad idea. Liss has him on a pretty strict program with learning to use kinetic energy for body reinforcement. And I trust her more than any skill description. Kinetic energy is better than mana for body reinforcement. In all her years she has seen the best mana-based body reinforcement there is. She probably has mana-based body reinforcement of her own that is vastly superior to that passive, and she still says to focus on kinetic energy for body reinforcement. She knows something we don't.
Sam Mason
Wouldn't it just allow him to move to a higher difficulty level of it?
Joseph Serret
Which means more points into mana
Zaim İpek
It doesn't give more mana. It's a body enhancement passive.
Zaim İpek
It's a great passive, but it's too early. It will ruin Nat's training program that Liss set for him.
Kevin McGuire
I thought in a flashback, Nat told his sister he killed their dad. Am I misremembering?
Zaim İpek
I don't care so much about the others, but Biscuit's backstory was TOO MUCH! Biscuit deserves a life of only sunshine, lolipops, rainbows, and deer jerky! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Seth
I can't wait for this group of misfits to return to Earth and rule the world.
Sam Mason
Infinite scaling of cognitive clarity and healing still seems too good. Pulse is the generalist approach that incorporates mind and rebirth. The reason I could see him choosing rebirth is only if he wants to lean more in primordial energies. The mind one he has already made headway on with his construct. Viel would be interesting because it takes a newer direction, but manipulation + resonance should be able to get him there.
Jake Atwood
Nah he should learn to do it himself instead skills should do something you can not he can do most the stuff on that passive already the rest is a matter of time the mind fortitude would probably be best cause he can’t replicate that
Andrew
Thank you!
Oskar Malim
Mirec stop trying to make me cry dammit
RingoSeto
exactly... mana pulse means passive mana and constitution.. meaning more mana less probs... always a nat thing to do... unless he goes healing
Sam Mason
Pulse makes the most sense to me, infinite scaling.
blimko
Mana pulse sounds the most fun to me. But Mana-Fortified Mind could be also very good for long term OPness.
Gio
true, that would be a good choice too. But I think this is a case of the writer not understanding what exponential means :p
Joseph Serret
I deeply enjoyed this chapter and the little bonding sesh, also mana pulse circulation cuz MORE MANA IS BEST MANA
Dual.
Feels good chap, thanks cerim!
Augustus
Mana Pulse Circulation is a good all rounder with healing body strengthening and mental enhancement, and since the effects scale exponentially with more mana it would probably be the best in the long run even if the boost in specific areas is less initially. A solid boost for the class selection.
Max
Group 4 ❤️
M van Dongen
I vote for Mana pulse circulation. A secondary source of (some) healing, increased base level performance of his poor neglected body......and most importantly....increased understanding. If he understands more he can learn more and doesn't need the extra abilities. And it scales *exponentially* with mana. Which is totally his specialty. Oodles and oodles of Mana. Id he has better understanding he can even make better weapons...and sell them again for more shards.
Doleo
Mana Pulse Circulation says it scales exponentially with mana, so it's definitely the most value. And probably one of the easier skills to learn by having the passive considering it isn't dealing with primal energy.
Gio
Either Mana Fortified Mind, so he can use his eye trait without restraint and use it to make better items. Or mana sculptir and use it to make items. Both would allow him to make tons of shards, and buy his next passive earlier.
Aoth the Arcane
Tftc Enjoyed it
zoarian
Damn, the feels are real. Truly, group 4 is the most normal of all groups. I do wonder if Tess planned for this - it's no secret Nat has a soft spot for kids & animals so he's a bit more inclined to share. Looking at the passives and how Nat can learn from them, we have: - Mana Pulse Circulation, improving mana flow - Mana Veil, improve resonance, redistribution and hiding mana - Mana-Fortified Mind, improve his mind construct and learn how to manage the strain of skills - Thermal Rebirth Matrix, gain a healing skill, improve thermal energy control - Mana Sculptor, improve constructs I think Mana Pulse Circulation and Mana Sculptor are where he's strongest and has the highest likelihood of learning to replicate them. Thermal Rebirth Matrix is a long shot (healing in general seems difficult to pick up without affinity), but if it pays off that'd be huge and it's also most immediately useful. Mana Veil is interesting but steps into the realm of phantom classes (yuck!) and hiding is not a part of his toolkit. Mana-Fortified Mind seems unnecessary since he does have Focus and is fairly proficient at mental defence (even has a construct IIRC) but the part with managing skill & trait strain is juicy. I would probably go for Pulse Circulation/Sculptor. Fortified Mind is good if he wanted to power level a skill (mana manipulation?) in hopes of getting a better class and Thermal Rebirth/Veil are most useful at getting an immediate fighting boost.
Aoth the Arcane
PART OF THE CREW PART OF THE SHIP
Jughead
One of us!
XPDev
tftc, group 4 the greatest frfr
Alexikon
One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us!
Youkai-sama
🥺😢😭
Harrison
Sadthanial
jj
The sharing is as awkward as Nat usually is so, damn. Anyway, I'm betting he takes Mana Pulse Circulation because it works directly off his Mana attribute so it should keep growing with him for a long while.
monsieurTNT251
I love this chapter.. Oh wait there's something stuck in my eye gimme a minute
Belmont Igneul
The lore
Moon Winchester
Nathaniel, I pray for the day you can meet your sister. Nat of Mana, Vic of Con
Ekko
Trauma Bonding! Works every time. But seriously, none of them had it easy and they deserve better. In retrospect, what Kind of bus was it, that they rode in, for it to have so many traumatised people? Is that area were they come from just that bad or are Busses just that Depressing?
frankie doerr
I was not expecting the feels
