Weapons of Mass Destruction

“No, no. You have to use much less mana. Right now, you're wasting a lot of it. Also, try doing it a bit faster.”

“It's not that easy!”

Huhu.

I continue to bully Tess while teaching her to improve her [Mana Manipulation]. With my trait, my handling of mana has improved a lot, and I don't feel that bad about her getting such good skills.

I'm helping her, right? I'm totally not doing it because of some petty reason, like her laughing while remembering me getting punched in the face by someone old enough to be my dad.

Not at all!

“Faster!”

"..."

Oh, Tess! Don't look at me like that! It's for your own good.

She only sighs, “There's a troll in front of us; this way.” She points towards her right, and with a short nod, I head there while pulling out my sword. Soon enough, I see a baby troll.

[Troll - lvl 6]

Right now, I'm at a higher level than the monster, but I'm sure that it's still much stronger than me, and its constitution is higher.

As many times before, a rain of small stones flies like bullets from Tess and right onto the troll's face. They hit him hard. Most of them shatter on his skin, but some hit its weaker points, such as its eyes.

The troll roars and turns to me while sniffing. It covers its eyes while swinging its hand at me.

This time, I send a pulse of my mana towards the bottom half of my body and dash to the side. The troll is too slow to react and my sword's blade passes through its legs like it's made out of butter. The blade, coated in oscillating mana, cuts through it like that.

With another roar full of pain, the creature loses balance and falls down. I dodge slightly, and while it's falling, I make a diagonal cut across its face, deep enough to split it open. I dodge just in time to avoid a shower of its brain matter and blood.

[You have defeated the Troll - lvl 6]

“There are fewer and fewer goblins and more trolls; do you think we entered their territory or something?”

“It looks like it. We can be thankful that we ended up surrounded by goblins and not trolls.”

“Just one troll would be enough to tear through us…”

Yup, exactly.

That's what I've been saying the entire time. After seeing the monsters that are lurking around, I know that we were super lucky.

Or maybe not?

Maybe the system put us in a slightly less dangerous starting zone?

We continue.

“So, you were saying that I should get Mana Circuit as a trait if it's offered to me?”

“Probably? You might get offered something better, but right now, I think picking it was the right decision.”

“No, I think you're right. Humans probably don't have bodies evolved to handle mana, so giving it a push like that sounds logical.”

Right? I think so too!

“But Mana Heart also sounded good.”

Hmm, how to explain it?

“Imagine that you have a car.”

I move under a few branches and hold one up so Tess can walk under it as well. Then I wait for her to finish leaving the mark on the tree.

“You collect enough money and you buy a bigger engine. A much bigger engine goes into it, and the rest of the car remains the same. At some point, you go out, excited to try it…”

“Oh, but then you step on the gas, the car rushes ahead, and it breaks?”

“It either breaks, or you won't be able to handle it. You can't turn that easily anymore because it's much stronger. You can't stop quite as fast because it's much heavier.”

She falls deep into her thoughts.

“I think I agree with you somewhat.”

I see that I still haven't persuaded her completely, but that's okay.

But let's not tell her that I am doing the exact opposite with my stats.

Yup, do as I say, not as I do!

She should decide for herself and then bear the consequences or fruits of her decision.

“Let's wait for the second group and exchange information.”

I only nod and we wait in silence while keeping a watch.

After 5 or so minutes, I feel a wave of mana wash over my body. When it senses my mana signature, it instantly pulls back, and after a minute or so, Sophie, Kevin, and Kim appear from the forest.

“Hello, fellow scouts.” Kevin smiles brightly, and I sigh, already getting tired.

I let Tess deal with them, and for a second, my eyes meet those of a thin Korean boy wearing big glasses.

He smiles awkwardly and shrugs his shoulders, then looks away.

Huhu, my best test subj… my best student!

Other than mine, his [Mana Manipulation] is the highest level, and his skill…

[Telekinesis] seems to be a bit weaker version of Tess's [Psychokinesis], as I think Tess can do much more than just manipulate objects with her mind. Also, the raw power of her skill seems to be stronger than Kim's.

But the boy got another skill, [Gravity Well]. It's still low level, but as for now, he can increase or decrease the weight of items he's touching, but in the future…

Okay, breathe in, breathe out.

Good.

Now don't whine; it's getting annoying.

Good.

The power of self-reflection!

Anyway, he is an extremely hard-working and smart boy, but the weirdest thing is that he seems to be the happiest to be here out of all the kids.

Yes, even more than Kevin.

He's not showing it that much, but I can feel it in the way he manipulates his mana with excitement. I often see him looking around while smiling gently and just taking in the air.

Well, as I said some time ago. We might all be weirdos, and that's why we ended up here.

They talk for a bit longer and then leave. As they are going, I can feel Sophie looking for targets for her [Manipulation] and using it as detection. It's pretty shrewd.

“We have two more hours, and then we will have to set up camp and set up some defenses,” Tess says.

Seems doable enough.

Behold!

My nature-inspired abode with a classic touch.Constructed from stones sourced from the earth's depths. It's cool and pleasant, ensuring a comfortable summer climate.

Spacious enough to accommodate around 20 guests!

The entrance is…

Yes, yes… it's a cave.

For heaven's sake.

It's wet, it's cold, it smells, and I really hope it isn't a place where Cinderbear likes to take a nap.

After looking around for like thirty minutes, we didn't find anything, so we decide to set up our camp here.

Everyone else already joined us, and plenty of people with superhuman strength start cutting down the trees, moving giant stones to create a wall, and trying to make this dump… our camp as comfortable as possible.

Somehow Kevin ended up having to help move the heaviest stones.

Damn.

How could that happen?

Please, don't look at me like that while moving that stone; people will think you hate me!

Well, as the strongest one out of us, I am keeping watch with Sophie…

Someone, I am talking about you, HADWIN, did recommend Tess to use her psychokinesis to move heavy stuff, and so I ended up keeping watch with Ms. Mindbender.

At some point, her pulses of mana become really annoying.

Not because of frequency but because of how they feel.

I restrain myself, not wanting to help her at all, but after about 30 minutes, it becomes even more annoying. How are you not improving?

More time passes, and I swear she is even worse than before. At some point, she tried to experiment a bit and it somehow made it even more annoying.

Oh, come on.

“Hey…” she turns to me, not even expecting me to talk to her, “Don't move your mana like this. Try…”

I continue to give her a few tips on how to better handle her mana and reduce the waste.

The way she does it feels like looking for someone while screaming right next to their ear and asking where they are.

She listens quietly and tries it a few times, and I continue to correct her every time she does it wrong. I do it like 20 times, but she still continues and tries to fix it without complaining.

Her last try feels much better than what she's been doing the entire time, so I stop and leave her to her own practice.

She's a bit better now, and I breathe out with satisfaction. It really annoyed me.

Both of us keep watch like this for the remainder of the time until a sweaty and breathless Kevin comes to us.

“Damn, can't you two sit further from each other? A bit more, and you won't be able to see each other,” he giggles; even tired, he has enough energy for his nonsense.

“Dinner's ready, Tess should be here soon to take over watching.”

Seeing no reaction, the boy leaves, and I continue to watch while feeling the pulses of Sophie's mana near me.

Only then do I realize who I helped, and uncertainty washes over me.

Did I really do it just because I got annoyed?

I didn't feel her mana touching my body, and I kept [Focus] running the entire time.

Still, I'm unsure if I'll ever be certain about her manipulating me or not.