Chapter 19: Just another Monday

God, I don’t know what I hate more now, demons, or cops! Two hours of just sitting around answering the same questions over and over again in this little tent thing they had set up nearby. I don’t know if they didn’t believe me or just couldn’t get the story straight but they kept me so damn long my mana almost ran out. Reina’s father wasn't even the one doing the questioning, he just led me in and dumped me off on some snarky dude who apparently was a freaking idiot. He needed me to repeat everything multiple times. Finally they cut me loose after two hours. Saving grace is that they offered me a ride home. Which was good because I was not willing to try my luck with another bus stop.

I'm metaphorically biting my nails the whole ride, watching as my mana gets lower and lower as we cross the city. Finally I get dropped off in front of my house and quickly make my way up to my room. Only Tommy seems to notice my entrance and looks up from his blocks to wave at me, and I wave back. The twins are watching TV, mom is cooking dinner, and I'm pretty sure dad is still at work.

Once I get to my room, I pull my backpack off and fish out the seven or eight fliers they gave out in the orientation. I sit down at my desk and pull my shirt off, letting my wings free just short of running out of mana.

Mana: 37/2882

Yea, too fuckin close for confort. Note to self, give way more leeway on mana reserves. It worked out this time, but damn that was way too fucking close. If my spell had failed mid car ride…. I shudder just thinking of the outcome.

I find the page I want and read through it, finding a few other helpful tidbits along the way. Like apparently working out, stretching, running, etc can improve the relevant stats by a few points. But the higher your own abilities go, the harder it is to gain these advantages. And if you stop exercising you will gradually lose the benefits as your body returns to normal. The example they give is that someone with a hundred strength needs to basically bench press an empty freight train car to get benefits. Which isn't even feasible without the use of specialized equipment. Finally I get to what I am looking for.

Average stats for males - Strength: 17-21, Agility: 14-18, Dexterity: 11-14, Endurance: 20-30, Intelligence: 15-27, Attunement: 6-12

Average stats for females - Strength: 15-19, Agility: 13-17, Dexterity: 13-18, Endurance: 17-28, Intelligence: 16-28, Attunement: 6-12

image [https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/0gXVKTYmLpB3lTRbRlD52Kp16SOy3xSeQ-P6ez-GAIjjyT3M7p5dMp-L3d5TBlBAfgO7CB8Il1TV2Mdx-TjFu4ePv_xuyv14foosXJcIAkn_hqtZuvFC37QH47n3kF_nNGrBZf4chXsgy3UeoQM3wb0]

Holy shit, mine are like double these numbers! Some of them are even more than that! My attunement is bonkers compared to the baseline. The only thing even close is endurance. I know demons are stronger than regular people by a long shot, but this is ridiculous. I guess that's why the demon didn't rip my arm straight off. Damn, looking back I probably could have punched the thing myself to get it off. Though I don't know if I would have broken my own hand in doing so. The Swedish guy had a spell and still broke his hand.

Either way it worked out, somehow. I got some more power level out of it and a new illogical fear of waiting for public transportation, how neat. Charles, Anna, and James are gonna lose their shit when I tell them about this. Speaking of Charles, he's online, and I want to know what kind of demon I dealt with. So I give him a call. He answers franticly after only two rings.

"Holy crap Lucy, are you ok!?"

"Uhhhh, yea? Why?"

"I saw you on the news! You fought a demon!?"

"Ahhhhh craaaaaaap! I forgot about the news vultures! How bad is it?" I say while letting my head fall onto my desk.

"Not too bad. They didn't identify you or anything, I just recognized you by your favorite jacket. No one else has one like that. Bet you're pissed about that."

"Damn fucking right I'm pissed. That was a super soft jacket! Now I have to go get another one!"

"So I take it you're somehow not in the hospital. How did you get them to let you out?”

“The other guy involved had a friend who was a healer, he patched me up for free.”

“Damn, lucky Lucy showing herself again. Could have been bad if you got stuck in the hospital.”

“Don't get me started. I barely made it up to my room before running out of mana.”

“Damn, sounds like you need more points put towards your mana. Maybe ….. You…. should… Oh shit, Lucy, look at the news!”

“What, what's happening? Which channel?” I ask while pulling open a browser tab.

“News thirteen. There's a standoff between some demons and defenders at city hall.”

“What? Demons don’t stand off, they rampage and break shit.” I say while opening the news thirteen livestream on vidshare.

What greets me is an overhead view from a helicopter looking down on city hall from very far away. But it was clear to see the building was in bad shape. Even from a distance it was clear to see smoke was rising from it, and some parts of the building looked collapsed. The camera was attempting to zoom and focus on a bunch of figures standing in front.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“ ….our correspondent in the air Dave Tanner.”

“Thank you Sara. As you can see demons are pouring out of city hall but seem to be put off by the heavy response. They have yet to attack, but our sources say they have a lord leading, they may be waiting to amass more forces before attacking. The condition of people within city hall is unknown and … hold on, is that demon holding someone?”

Sure enough the camera zooms in on a particularly big demon slowly forcing its way out the front doors of the building. In the demon’s left hand is someone, clearly flailing and trying to get free. The demon stops and holds the man up, before lightly shaking him around while its huge mouth moves.

“Hold on, there appears to be a new development. The demon is using a hostage as leverage, that must be the lord. We may soon see ….. Hold on, you sure? Were going to have to switch back to you Sara, they just closed down airspace over the city so we have to pull out.”

“Alright thank you Dave, keep you updated as we receive updates…” I mute the tab and swap back to discord.

“God I hate this city, it's fucking cursed isn't it?” I ask.

“Ehhh, probably. Think we should start heading to the bunkers?” Charles asks.

“First off, I don't have the mana for that. Second, weren't you complaining that the bunkers were worse than the demons? Third, my bed’s the perfect place to hide, I can nap and ignore the world burning around us.” I say, punctuated by a dejected chuckle.

“I could make a joke but I won't.”

“Good, because I know where you live. I will fly over there and kick your ass.”

“I thought you were out of mana?”

“Hush! Minor detail.”

“‘Badun’ User has joined your channel.” The digital voice of discord says aloud.

“Holy crap, have you guys seen the news!?” Anna says with a hint of panic.

“Yea we were just talking about it. Demons are doing weird shit this time though.” I reply.

“They were holding someone hostage before the news chopper pulled out. Now we don’t know what's going on.” Charles says.

“Yea I saw that! What’s gonna happen!?” Anna asks.

“Who knows, it's not our problem. So, Minecraft?” I reply.

“Yea, probably good to get our minds off the demons. Just try not to get blown up this time Anna.” Charles says.

“That wasn’t my fault! James left the door open and it walked in while I was crafting!” Anna says back in protest.

“That's why I put the lighting rods in front of the doors, they block the mob's pathfinding. But someone said they were ugly and a waste of copper and removed them. Then that same someone got blown up by a creeper that walked in the front door.” I snarky replied.

“Shut up! You can’t pick on a cripple!” Anna playfully replies.

“Oh please Anna, you beat….” Charle’s reply is cut off by a loud explosion in the distance that causes the lights to flicker and my headset to get filled with static.

After a moment I feel a wave of what I think is essence rush past me. It’s similar to feeling a person, but everywhere at once as it blows past me and makes me fall out of my chair in surprise.

“Holy shit, what the hell was that?!” Charles asks once the static clears up.

“I don't know but I feel we should get to shelter.” Anna meekly replies.

“Hey Lucy you there?” Charles asks as I finish climbing back up into my seat.

“Yea I’m good. Just caught off guard.” I reply.

“The siren hasn't gone off so I don’t think we should move. I’m wondering if they started fighting those demons at city hall.” Charles says.

“I hope that's it and we don’t have to run off to the bunkers. I’m still out of mana.” I say absentmindedly.

“Why are you out of mana Lucy? Ah! Have you been practicing magic!? Show me, show me!” Anna replies with enthusiasm.

Well, at least Anna is distracted. How much mana do I have anyways?

image [https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/HZwSZdVYNW15yTF0Kcxbmpo4VpVSL6XHE9oZssgbSu7FeQK1m240FAANVOb_LCphQKE0-O0NPw4_oWB_z6ik8Y76XA72QSfnRSVcK8ffVG364FjmMuB92WSgkvy_d1yzn9SMeThZIoaAW7cxpCJWckA]

Holy shit! That wave gave me like fifty power level! And I got five stat points to spend, score!

“Lucy, are you still there?” Charles asks.

“Yea, hold on I’m gawking at my stats screen. That explosion gave me like fifty power level and bumped me over the threshold for five more stats points.” I reply

“Oh sweet, what are you going to spend them on?” Charles asks.

“Magic, do Magic! It’s gonna be so cool when you start flying and throwing fireballs!” Anna yells in excitement.

“Calm down Anna, it's Lucy’s stats. Let her make her decision.” Charles says trying to calm Anna down a notch.

“Sorry.” Anna meekly replies.

“I don’t know Charles. I think listening to the devil on my shoulder is a good idea here.” I say.

“Hey!” Anna protests, eliciting a chuckle from me and Charles.

I need more mana, end of discussion. So right now, all my points are getting slapped into attunement. And with that, my mana capacity jumps by a decent amount.

image [https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/rOVUH6hooRwaXpF9K4SrOB6lMjg0N15VD1NzVFEmQ_xlGgJO-WL7pueOIGtAi4jdeYcZvXZIIawDMBFw9jKZPRa-tfiO2XpDJE4So4WabARquGN9r-yFa-Sz8moRHKd1wQmkHmJgBMUN4zOgkB6dnCg]

A little over three hundred mana increase may not seem like much, but I know those attunement points are also going to help with spells and the like.

"So what are your stats at now?" Anna asks.

Like hell I'm gonna tell her my stats. But Anna's head will probably explode and she will be fuming at me for the next month if I don't. So, time to think up some bullshit. I look over to the paper on the edge of my desk and start reading random numbers.

"Strength sixteen, agility fifteen, dexterity thirteen, endurance eighteen, intelligence twenty, attunement fifteen." I say with faux confidence.

"Oooh cool! How much mana can you hold!?"

"Uhh, a little under a thousand." I say after trying to sound convincing after pulling a semi realistic number out of my ass. Thankfully Anna seems to buy it.

"That's awesome! How many…." Ana tries to go on, only to be interrupted by Charles coming to my rescue.

"Alright Anna, stop going all Spanish inquisition on poor Lucy. Game server is up." says.

So we all joined up and the conversation shifted from my magic to our lack of iron. Charles had been strip mining so we should have had lots of it. We were wondering where it all went when Anna stumbled into James's secret golem room hidden away in his part of the base. Anna then proceeded to lava trap James's bed and go mining, where she was promptly blown up by a creeper. Funny enough James didn't get online at all.

It was good, feeling normal playing Minecraft and worrying about what assignments we have due tomorrow. Eventually the night crept in and Anna and Charles had to call it quits. So I call it and did my night routine before hitting the covers. Except I couldn't sleep…. Again. After a few hours I just said fuck it and played Drg2 for the rest of the night.