Chapter 301: After Night
The night went on full. The Yumboes sang traditional songs, their voices high and melodic, while the players (once awake) recounted their battles. Jackson was unsurprisingly the biggest story-teller. The guy had a way with words and metaphors in a southern way. The festivities only applied to the able ones. Akihiko and Kenzo, Sarah, and Pauline had to be tended by Kazi. As Kazi suspected, Sylvia forgot, or rather, preferred to drink over helping Pauline. Kazi tried not to judge too harshly.
Morning came, bringing with it the dark light of dawn. The village was quiet, the only sounds those of the gentle breeze and the occasional snore from the drunken revelers. Kazi slept for half an hour before waking up and going outside. Everyone else slept well into the evening. Emma, Remmy, Kibiwott, Akihiko, and Kenzo, all the players who thought they could volunteer for the midnight-sunrise patrol failed to. They were only human, after all.
Kazi was a little bit more than that.
He didn’t want to alarm anyone. He didn’t want them to worry about some extra boss. They did more than enough. So alone, Kazi Hossain trained and patrolled the perimeter. If a boss did come, he would slaughter it himself.
With no monsters in the area, however, throughout his patrol, he was fighting the air and the illusions he conjured in his head.
’So far, the only part of combat I’m finding difficult is activating Mastered Flow of Mana alongside skills and created platforms. I initially relied on using the System for Mastered Flow of Mana and skill; not anymore. I can do both now. But doing three at once? I can’t seem to do it and the System can’t help either. The platforms aren’t specified as skills, they are extensions of Godly Shape Control.’
Kazi had been running at full throttle with Mastered Flow of Mana and skidded to a stop, thrusting Stormedge forward with a Super Spark Strike. No incantations. No leaning on the System. Kazi could do both acts without hesitation or weakening. He perfected Super Spark Strike. Three inches away from his ankle, a tiny platform manifested. Kazi’s arms fueled itself with mana which rapidly extended toward Stormedge for the newly perfected Super Spark Strike.
The principle was there. He understood. He could do it. However, that was only like this when he was taking his sweet time. Not in the rapid motions of battle. If he started running up with platforms appearing under his feet, the lightning of Stormedge went haywire.
’I have to do it myself. The issue is: my mind and soul can imagine the combination without issue. My body can’t seem to keep up. It’s a matter of experience and adjusting. A human body simply cannot go from having no mana at all to activating it like a professional. Like all things, it needs time.’