Death: Genesis 6: An Isekai LitRPG by Nicholas Searcy

Author:Nicholas Searcy [Searcy, Nicholas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Published: 2024-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

35

A FLOCK OF FISH

Zeke felt heavy. His legs were like lead weights, and his every breath was labored. However, the farther he traveled from the epicenter of his recent explosion of power, the better it felt.

“It’s the ambient mana,” Eveline supplied, gliding along beside him. Her own progress looked effortless, but every now and then, her entire body flickered as if she was barely holding herself together. “With every step of progress you make, you grow more powerful, but that power comes at the cost of dependence. Without mana—and in your case, the attuned sort—your body can’t support itself.”

“Kind of gathered as much,” Zeke muttered, trudging along.

“The good news is that the levels are steadily rising, and it should only be another couple of hours before we reach full saturation,” she said. “Of course, that assumes you won’t use some new skill that blows up the world or something.”

Zeke shook his head. He did intend to activate a previously unused skill, but he didn’t think [Colossal Legion] would be detrimental to the environment. Of course, it did make him wonder what infusing the skill with his rudimentary braid of disparate powers would do to the bronze golems.

“First—no,” Eveline said. “Just … no.”

“What?” Zeke asked, glancing in her direction.

“It’s like touching a hot stove, seeing the burn, and then asking, ‘Well, it burned my hand, but what about my foot?’ So, I’m going to just cut that off right now,” she said. “And second, you aren’t calling it your rudimentary braid of disparate powers, even in your head. That’s just a mouthful of stupid words.”

“Open to suggestions,” Zeke said with an exhausted sigh.

“I like the braid part,” she said. “It’s very … evocative. But it feels somewhat passé. Same with weave. I’m going to have to give this some thought.”

“You do that.”

In the meantime, Zeke would keep calling it what he wanted to call it, even if his description was a little cumbersome. He got the feeling that if he gave Eveline free rein, she’d come up with something pretentiously grandiose.

Gradually, they continued to trek across the black dunes. A few times, Zeke saw some of the native wildlife but nothing larger than a small bird. According to Eveline, the monsters had assuredly vacated the area the moment the ambient mana levels dipped below a certain threshold.

“They’re even more dependent on it than we are,” she explained. “I had a friend—well, frenemy, really—she killed one of my armies once. And even though she said she didn’t know who they were, I think she—”

“Eveline.”

“Oh,” the spirit woman said. “Sorry. I drift off sometimes. I think it’s because of the whole ‘having my soul splintered into a half dozen pieces and scattered across the Sea of Corruption’ thing.”

Put like that, she certainly did have an excuse for her flighty nature. But then again, Zeke suspected that was just part of her personality.

“Anyway, Dalala used to say that the beasts are more in tune with the world than sapients,” Eveline went on. “She did experiments and everything.

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