It was getting dark rather quickly, and a beautiful red and orange sunset stretched across the sky. Not wanting to waste what little light was remaining for the day, I sprinted into the house. I had a kerosene lantern in the garage, so I grabbed that, as well as several flashlights and electric lanterns that we had as spares.

  In the living room, I lit the kerosene lantern, and the house filled with light. Making a quick pass to make sure the garage door was closed, and all entries were locked, I moved back to where I left the light. Making a quick sandwich for dinner, I sat down to begin grinding some skill levels.

  One of the skills I knew I had been neglecting was my Electroreceptivity. I had attempted to use it in the apartment, but the sheer number of signals had practically overloaded my brain, so I kept the skill closed. It was probably a good idea to start leveling it up, as I could tell that it would allow me to sense animals, as well as electronic devices with great ease. I had found a box of replacement batteries in the garage and using some wire I created a small collection of simple circuits. I scattered them around the room and sat cross-legged in on the carpet.

  I closed my eyes and did my best to clear my mind before activating Electroreceptivity. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced before, and even describing the sensation that it caused was difficult. The sense reminded me more of touch than anything else. It granted a vague sense of where electricity was in the area around me. Using it I could sense the different batteries sitting around me. As it didn’t have any mana cost and was an intrinsic racial ability, I decided that leaving it activated as often as possible was in my best interest.

  Next on my list was attempting to gain a new skill. The biggest stumbling block I had for leveling up my magic skills was that in order to do so, I would burn through my mana extremely fast. I needed a way to rapidly increase my regeneration in order to make the training far more efficient, else I’d be wasting my time. In order to do this, I really wanted to try and gain a skill for meditation.

  In many books and stories, meditation was an easy means for characters to supplement their natural regeneration, be it for healing, peace of mind, or magic. Considering the way that the world seemed to be working, there was almost certainly a skill for it. Gaining it might prove difficult though.

  In order to use my Stormborn regeneration trait, I found a large bowl. Gathering water from some sealed rain barrels outside, I dunked a towel in the bowl, and wrapped it around my shoulders, trying to get the trait to activate. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be working. I probably needed to be touching a lot more water. Preparing myself for unpleasantness, I found a large plastic box that was used for storing clothes away. Dragging the box into the kitchen, I began the painstaking process of filling it with water from the rain barrel. It took around two hours, but once I was finished, I could sit in the homemade bathtub and activate the stormborn regeneration.

  Settling in for a long grind, I sat down in the tub, and tried to hold a floating ball of water in my right hand, as well as a small spark of lightning in my left. I ended up depleting my mana in about 15 minutes but managed to level my skills a few times. I would then meditate and try and gain my mana back. I could completely refill my mana in only 25 or so minutes, so I could repeat the process again and again. As the level of Electrokinesis and Hydrokinesis rose their costs were reduced, so I increased the amount of water and the size of the spark of electricity until I just barely had a negative gain. Through all of this, I emptied my mind, and continued attempting to meditate to increase my natural restoration. I found a flow in my breathing, breathing air in, and cycling it back out.

  After almost four hours of constant meditation, my practice bore fruit.

  Well that was lame. At least I got the skill, but that is definitely disappointing. It does lead me to believe though that the changes to come to the environment during the third wave would have to do with the introduction of mana. I could only imagine the havoc that might wreak.

  The skill gains for Electrokinesis and Hydrokinesis were both extremely useful though. When I first started, even moving small drops of water was difficult, but now I can hold around a gallon with the same amount of effort. What’s more, when I recreated those level one sparks and droplets, I could hold them almost indefinitely. That might have something to due with my increased wisdom, but I could see how in the future having free access to a ball of lightning or a gallon of water might come in handy.

  Deciding that I had worked enough for the day, I decided to call it a night. Climbing out of the water, I activated flight and flew through the house to my bedroom. I hopped in bed to try and sleep, but sleep did not come easy. There was too much on my mind. Running over the events of the past 48 hours, my consciousness eventually faded.

  I woke up to my phone alarm at 8:00 am. Having a breakfast of more granola bars, I quickly got dressed and prepared to go about my day. The first thing to do now that the driveway was clear was to take an exploratory trip down the road to make sure I could get back to the city with all of my supplies. If the road was blocked, I wanted to try and level up my athletics skills, particularly agility, and experiment with unarmed combat.

  First on the list though was a scouting mission. This time as I started flight, I decided to try and use aerokinesis to push me along a bit. Using my wind manipulation skill, I was able to keep some of the natural breezes from pushing me around. It was difficult at first, but by creating a thin shield of wind around my head as I flew, I was able to fly a bit higher and faster at the expense of mana.

  I flew right past the clearing I made yesterday and headed down the road. It looked like the dirt road on my property was still mostly there, with only the narrow band of trees I cleared yesterday blocking the way, but when I arrived on the main street, I could tell that there were far more problems than I had hoped. I flew up to my max height and tried to look around the area. From high above, I could see multiple houses along the landscape, but they had all been shuffled about. The street was in some places exactly where it was before, and in others it was swapped out for large pieces of rock or clumps of trees.

  Until someone came out and cleared a massive amount of woodland, most of the traveling would have to be done on foot. Luckily, I had flight allowing me to not worry about travel for the most part, but almost everyone would be stuck in place until something could be done.

  Taking a closer look at some houses, I noticed that my old neighbor and his wife were standing outside of their house looking up at me. The Elemental Flight and the Enhanced Vision skills sure do come in handy for things like this. I think I’m going to drop by and see what’s going on.

  Mr. and Ms. Warner had moved on the property next to ours when I was 10 and had been nice neighbors to have. They had brought us many a casserole, a sure sign of a pure and honest heart. Nothing says neighborly love quite like the delicious gift of molten cheese.

  Flying over near to their front porch, I landed and begun the short walk to say hello. From what I could tell, both Mr. and Ms. Warner had been affected by the first or second wave. Each of them had tall grey rabbit ears atop their heads, that twitched about, no doubt picking up sounds all over.

  I was brought to a halt as Mr. Warner pushed his wife behind his back, and pulled out a pump shotgun. Pointing the barrel of the gun my way, Mr. Warner let out a shuddering breath.

  “Freeze right there, missy. We want no trouble from you. You best be on your way.”

  I could tell that he was scared because the barrel of the gun was jittering ever so slightly, but honestly, I was freaking out too. I’ve never had a gun pointed at me, let alone had a scared person on the other end of the trigger.

  “Um, hey Mr. Warner. It’s me, your neighbor? Victoria Gale.”

  Almost immediately I could tell that he calmed down. It was like all of the fear got sucked right out of his body when I said my name. That’s pretty strange, his transformation from the scared old man to the happy neighbor was too fast to be anything but supernatural. Well, I guess he could have some type of psychosis, but hopefully, that wasn’t the case. I decided I could gamble in my favor.

  “So, Mr. and Ms. Warner, I see you have gone through the upgrade as well? What race are you, if I might ask? Some type of rabbit person?”

  Ms. Warner stepped forward as I began to ask questions, and with a panicked voice asked, “Do you know anything about what’s happened to us? We lost power yesterday, and the road is blocked. Can you help us?”

  I stepped forward, onto their front porch. “Can we sit? There’s probably going to be a lot to talk about.”

  They had a wrap-around porch on their house, and there was some old but comfortable outdoor furniture sitting on it. We all took a seat, and I walked them through accessing their status and their skills. After they had settled down, I answered what questions I could that they had, but it was difficult to follow. They had far more questions than I had answers, but I didn’t fault them for their panic and curiosity. They were both members of the Forest Hare Beastkin race, and I was also able to confirm that they changed as part of the second wave.

  “I’ll check with you both before I head back to town. Do you have enough food and water to stay here for a while? You might need to head to the city if it becomes a problem. Plus pretty soon, monsters are going to show up, and you’ll either need to hide or fight.”

  Mr. Warner smiled and shook his head, saying, “Now don’t you worry Vic. We have plenty o’ supplies here, and we’ll be better off than most. Now you just stop by whenever you can, and you’ll find hospitality here.”

  Ms. Warner nodded in agreement with her husband, adding on, “We’ll use our ATV to go around to the houses in the area gathering people up and helping them to access their statuses and skill lists. You need to get those supplies to your friends in the city. It sounds like they need your help.”

  Bidding farewell, I decided to fly back to the ranch house. I wanted to go back to the city, but training for another day would be too helpful for me to pass up. I had a sneaking suspicion that any strength advantage I could get early on would be helpful against others with powers. I was no fighter, and though I had acknowledged I would definitely have to fight in the future, I didn’t feel prepared in the least.

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  I think the first thing to do would be try and increase constitution, strength, and agility. Removing my shoes, I started to do sprints back and forth across the driveway. This should hopefully deplete my stamina, help to increase my strength, and work on agility as well. It took about 20 minutes of rapid sprints to deplete my stamina, and already the skill and level gains were substantial. The soles of my feet were being rubbed raw by the concrete, and by soaking my legs in the rain barrel outside, I could activate my health regen.

  Dash seemed particularly useful. I was surprised by how quickly my physical abilities had been increasing, but I had my suspicions. I remembered in my Affinities I had one called Physicality that I hadn’t inspected quite yet. I needed to get more used to inspecting things, particularly in regards to my menu.

  That means that my race came with constitution, wisdom, and charisma. After learning that, I decided to go ahead and inspect the rest as well.

  That was excellent as well. It makes sense, now that I’m reading it. I have definitely noticed that I felt more confident in my motions, and this applied to both cutting down trees yesterday and doing sprints just now.

  That also explained storm resistance. I thought it was a part of my race, but I guess my race could have those in-born affinities as well.

  That was also pretty interesting. Not useful at the moment, but I’m sure it would come in handy later.

  It's true that I’ve always enjoyed creating things, but I also don’t think that I would really be using this one too much.

  With that out of the way, I decided to get back to grinding skills. This time, I created a bubble of air around me, as well as held a sphere of water and a spark of lightning. That way I could grind three of my abilities at once. With a determined mind, I decided to get to work.

  I spent the rest of the day grinding skills, stopping for a quick lunch break. It was now right around 4:30, and I had just finished bringing my physical skills up to their new max values. As soon as I had finished, I felt immense satisfaction. It felt almost like putting in the last piece of a puzzle, where once there was emptiness, now I was complete. There was more to it than simple numbers. I could tell that my parameters had just been waiting to be put into place, and the efficiencies of the game-like system allowed them to increase so easily. While exercising, I found out I could sense the amount of health, stamina, and mana I had with great accuracy. My wisdom was only one off of the max, as constantly depleting and refilling my mana seemed to increase it rapidly, and my intelligence had managed to increase as well. My charisma seemed to increase by itself over time, and luck was still a mystery.

  Excited at the prospect of casting spells, I quickly opened my spell list to see what I got.

  That was definitely useful. The wind and water spells were more supplementary or support spells, but the lightning spell would give me a good outlet for ranged instantaneous damage. Satisfied with my new abilities, I decided to stay here one more night, and leave back to the city in the morning.

  I quickly went back inside, locking up the door on my way, and headed off to my bedroom to sleep.

  Updated Status Sheet: