On the blue planet that was no longer blue.
Silas had been wondering how he was able to breathe without difficulty. One thing he understood was that his mother and the red-haired woman named Yerah both belonged to some organisation that knew of manacules even in the pre-apocalyptic world.
He also understood that there were certain items, like the blue liquid of unknown origins, that had miraculously suppressed the manacules around him, turning them invisible to the zombie-like creatures before. He had no knowledge of such items which made Silas question whether this world was really as primitive in the field of manalogy as he had assumed.
I should keep my questions and doubts for when we reach the camp.
After a few more minutes of waiting, Yerah woke up. The twelve-year-old boy that Silas had decided not to sacrifice for triggering Burning Rings of Death was still sleeping.
As soon as Yerah got up, she looked around. Without saying anything, she went outside the ruins they had taken shelter in.
"It is day, the zombies are immobile," she said, returning to the newly formed team of four.
"We should start moving, it will take at least four hours."
Yerah took out two more gas masks from the big bag she had been carrying on her shoulders. She gave one to Silas and then woke up the young boy, helping him wear the mask.
The mask was far too big for his small face, and he had to hold it in place with both hands. After they had packed their things, they were ready to leave for the survivor camp.
While they were leaving, Yerah handed Silas a gun, a handgun.
"Conserve mana, avoid spells as much as possible."
But I am a mono wielder... or at least you guys think I am. A mono wielder can't exhaust his mana force because tier 1 spells don't consume as much mana.
Wait... can it be? Is it possible that mono wielders can exhaust their mana force in this world? I am a septa wielder, however my mana reserves feel very low compared to what they should have been.
Can it be that the people in this world don't have as much mana?
Right... the three vital forces theory, which suggests that the three vital forces exist in three cores in the human body. The life force, which is present in the life core located in the heart.
The force that makes you you, anima force, present in the anima core in the brain, this is what is psyche. There are different names because of the lack of a single universally accepted nomenclature. In which case, this should also be the one involved in my transmigration.
And finally, the mana force. The mana core exists in the neck region. According to late revisions of the theory, one of the proposed ideas was that mana force depends on external mana density, however there was no way to prove this.
But now that I have actually transmigrated into a whole different world with a completely different manacule density, which is less than that of my world, I feel that my mana force is also significantly low.
This means that the theory was indeed correct. This also means that whatever exists in the mana core can interact with manacules present outside the body, converting them into something that is then used in order to influence and manipulate more external manacules. Yes! This makes so much sense!
Silas was a manalogy freak. Whenever he got time, he would let his imagination wander and think about manalogy-related topics.
He took the handgun from Yerah. He had no experience using a gun, but he understood the very basics, which was pulling the trigger. The guns in this world were very similar to the ones in his own world.
Since his world had manalogy as a publicly known and studied subject, certain things had developed differently than on Earth. For example, the guns in his world didn't have physical bullets; instead, they used the wielder's mana force to conjure bullets.
This also meant the gun did not need to be reloaded, and so the concept of reloading was alien to Silas. It was only from the memories of Caleric, of certain first-person shooter games, that he was able to make sense of it.
The guns he was more familiar with had a concept of overloading instead of reloading. It was when the machinery of the gun would heat up because of excessive use, and it needed to be cooled before reusing.
Silas was now wearing a gas mask and holding a gun in hand. They were ready to leave. Before heading out, they had decided on the formation to follow: Yerah would lead, Silas and the young boy would be in the middle, and Sophia would be a few steps behind them.
They headed outside in the northwest direction, Yerah leading the way. Although it was daytime, the smoke and dust clouds covering the skies let barely any light reach the surface, making it pitch black.
...
Having walked for over an hour, they hadn't encountered any threat. Previously, Yerah had told Silas about monsters roaming the land, however Silas hadn't sensed any such thing for the time being.
Those zombies only get active at night, why is it that other beasts don't follow the same pattern?
Silas was thinking, however he never let his guard down. Even if he wasn't actively scouting his surroundings, anything or anyone corrupted by manacules would trigger his perception. This meant he would know of an ambush long before it could happen.
"What's your name?" Silas asked the little boy who was walking beside him.
The boy wasn't able to hear Silas well; he was struggling to hold the gas mask on his face.
The boy had been silent the entire time after waking up back at the ruins where they had taken shelter the night before.
After asking again, the boy finally heard. Although it was difficult to talk from under gas masks, Silas was barely able to make out that the boy's name was Harrison.
Having survived for this long after the apocalypse... Harrison, you truly are blessed with a lot of luck.
The team kept moving without stopping. They had already decided that their only stop would be the survivor camp. Stopping in between would be highly dangerous. Last night they had been lucky to find a shelter, but such standing structures were extremely rare on this post-apocalyptic land.
After walking for another thirty minutes or so, they arrived at a small hill. Yerah suddenly stopped, gesturing for the others to come closer without making any sound.
The group slowly approached the cliff. As they peeked from the ledge, they saw a few monsters roaming the land below.
However, they were soon left extremely confused because what they had seen were not just corrupted monsters—there were human-like figures, some riding the beasts and some walking beside them.
"Who are they?" Silas asked.
Yerah simply shook her head side to side, showing that she was just as clueless as him. Sophia too had no idea. As for Harrison, he was struggling with his mask and couldn't see anything clearly.
After a few minutes of observing the scene below, Yerah said,
"Let's go around them, we can't take this route."
And thus the team followed, taking a longer path. On their way back to save Silas, Sophia had found the survivor camp. There, she had also come across an old man who claimed to have magical powers.
The man had told them that he was a cartographer. He was trying to sell maps of the nearby area which he claimed to have created using his magical powers. This post-apocalyptic world didn't have a clear use of money, so the only currency had become commodities, specifically food and water.
Although Sophia had been hesitant, Yerah had no problem parting with some of their food if it meant they would have less difficulty in their travels. And so they had bought a map of the nearby area.
Yerah was going through the map to find a different route to reach the camp. In the meantime, Silas was lost in his own mind.
People are taming corrupted beasts already? It has only been a day since the meteorite impacts stopped and the corruption started. There is no way people would already know how to tame them.
Unless they had been taught this before. This means the apocalypse was a predicted event and many people knew of it in advance.
This apocalypse is not as simple as just mass extinction due to meteorites. There are other elements involved. Something has made it so that the corrupted beasts appear. Someone or something is behind this corruption.
The way Yerah and Sophia seem almost too prepared for something like this, it is only natural to assume that the truth about the apocalypse runs much deeper. As soon as we reach the camp, I will ask Sophia to answer my questions. I hope she does.