Combine [1] and [2]: 5,000 Aura

John's mind spun with possibilities. The world outside had faded away, though he was vaguely aware of the others murmuring amongst each other. Objectively, he knew he should be paying attention. They were in enemy territory, and there was no telling when said enemies would take exception to their presence.

But there were very few forces on Earth that could distract him from his new Skill. Implanted instincts told him that all he had to do was hold a Spell in each of the slots he currently had unlocked, and he'd have the option to combine them into one spell. Permanently. John couldn't comprehend the kind of person who wouldn't have their imagination enraptured by this. Countless butterflies were fluttering their way around his stomach as he perused his current list of Spells, debating which ones he'd be willing to sacrifice to test a combination.

Level 0:

Sparks

Purify Water

Level 1:

Electric Shock

Aqua Shot

Rock Shield

Flash Freeze

Light Burst

Level 2:

Mana Blade

Soul Arrow

Burning Gale

Rest

Level 3:

Mana Sense

Soul Vision

Level 4:

Fireball

Heat Vision

Wind Shear

Shadow Stream

Soul Drain

Summon Undead

Seeing his full repertoire laid out like that was actually pretty impressive, but that feeling diminished when he realised how little he'd used a lot of them. He'd barely touched any of those Level 1s since unlocking then, and the Level 0s hadn't really had a chance. Even Mana Blade and Soul Arrow, which had seemed so crucial at first, had fallen to the wayside somewhat in tonight's excitement.

A feeling of waste nagged at him again, but he dismissed it, telling himself that it was always good to experiment with this system he'd been given. Besides, they now gave him perfect sacrifices for further experimentation; if he wasn't using them much anyway, might as well combine them to see how that whole thing worked.

Even so, he didn't want to waste the chance. Though he was accumulating Aura at a much greater rate than when he'd started, an expenditure of 5,000 in one go wasn't something he felt comfortable wasting, and he was reluctant to completely throw away the Level 1 Spells. Not to mention he was actually only sitting on a total of 6,400 right now, after the purchase of the Combine Skill.

Combine is almost certainly going to merge together the effects of two Spells to create a single one that performs an amalgamation of both. With that in mind, it'd be best to pick out two Spells that seem likely to output something good.

Of all the Level 1s, he'd used Aqua Shot the most, though that had only really been in that one battle against the skeleton monster.

And damn, that feels like ages ago, even though it was only this afternoon. Six hours ago, maybe? So much has happened in so little time, it makes it feel like the apocalypse has been going on for way longer.

The most obvious synergy out of the Level 1s, in his mind, was between Aqua Shot and Flash Freeze. They were both water-based Spells, after all; he imagined the combination would result in something that worked like Aqua Shot presently did, except the water bullet would freeze on contact with whatever it hit. That seemed more potent than the baseline Spell.

Electric Shock and Rock Shield was another promising possibility, if it ended up working out how he pictured: immediately shocking any enemy that touched the shield.

That was assuming they were even compatible, of course. There was a chance the Skill wouldn't let him merge two Spells that were too dissimilar to each other. For example, he couldn't imagine how a combination of, say, Soul Arrow and Soul Vision would work. Maybe it would grant him the details of the soul of anything his arrows struck? It was equally likely to fail, in his estimation, but he wasn't going to risk testing it on such an important Spell.

Flash Freeze and Light Burst were another, and their names especially leant themselves to interesting possibilities—"flash" and "light" were obviously related, if not precise synonyms. That was promising. Most likely, it would create a flash of light that froze everything it touched. A useful Spell, in touchy circumstances, though liable to inflict friendly fire on his comrades.

I don't necessarily have to limit myself to combining Level 1 Spells, either. There's nothing saying I can't merge a Level 2 Spell with a Level 1, or whatever.

That thought set him to wondering what Level the resulting Spell would be. Would it add the two levels together? Split the difference? Default to the highest Level?

Questions that were impossible to answer with the data at hand. He was going to have to just test it. Tempting as it was to see if he could add frost damage to his Mana Blade or electricity to his Soul Arrow, John decided it wasn't worth the risk, in case things ended up not working how he thought they would.

Even with that resolve, he still had a moment of hesitation. 5,000 Aura wasn't the highest total he'd spent in one go, but the possibility it might be a waste still gnawed at the bottom of his stomach.

He took a deep breath, and blew it slowly out.

Just do it. Can't know until you try.

Combined Aqua Shot (Level 1) and Flash Freeze (Level 1)!

-5000 Aura

Unlocked Ice Bullet (Level 2)

Smiling to himself as new information zapped itself into his brain, John turned to face away from his comrades and lifted a finger gun, cocking back his thumb. Mana gathered as he slotted the new Spell, taking aim at a random brick on the warehouse wall. Just as with Aqua Shot, a droplet of water gathered at the tip of his finger like it had snatched moisture from the air in the blink of an eye. This time, though, it immediately started crystallising, well on the way to frosting over before he'd even fired it.

John brought his thumb down, and the little bead of ice raced out at the speed of a bullet, almost too fast for his eye to track—a regular eye wouldn't have stood a chance, but Level 5 Agility and Mind let him cheat quite significantly. Marksman kept his aim true from this distance, and it hit the brick with a crack, chipping off a bit of red dust and leaving behind a little puff of white mist. He fired off a few more Ice Bullets as fast as his thumb could manage, which was considerable, and soon a thin film of ice covered a section of the brick.

Decent enough effect, but can't really expect much more firepower than that from a Level 2 Spell. More upgrades will probably make the bullet bigger, fly faster, and create more ice on impact. Potentially worth pursuing.

Stolen novel; please report.

More important than the Spell's effect in and of itself was what this result told him about Combine. He felt somewhat safe in assuming it would add up the Levels of whatever two Spells he combined, though he'd have to combine two Spells of different Levels to confirm that for certain. He also wanted to know if he could combine Spells that had already been combined previously, so he made a mental note to try and add another Spell to Ice Bullet in the future. The combined Spell seemed to follow a logical track, making him marginally more comfortable in being able to predict what would result out of various combinations.

As exciting as this all was, he couldn't help but feel a tinge of disappointment, and the urge to speed into the bus depot and farm some more Aura was suddenly overwhelming. He desperately wanted to know what other Spells he could create from combining them, and he found himself hungrily inspecting the other possibilities in his menus and speculating on what he could create.

Level 2 Spells:

Sigil Detonation: 1000 Aura

Earthen Armour: 1000 Aura

Scouring Steam: 1000 Aura

Ice Grasp: 1000 Aura

Illusory Clone: 1000 Aura

Astral Projection: 1000 Aura

Phantom Hand: 1000 Aura

Level 3 Spells:

Ice Breath: 2000 Aura

Thunderous Roar: 2000 Aura

Steel Skin: 2000 Aura

Air Bubble: 2000 Aura

Necrotise: 2000 Aura

Animate Blood: 2000 Aura

Dominate: 2000 Aura

Level 4 Spells:

Pyroclastic Lance: 4000 Aura

Tempest Sphere: 4000 Aura

Voltaic Chain: 4000 Aura

Earth Wave: 4000 Aura

Verdant Hell: 4000 Aura

Gravity Snare: 4000 Aura

Levitate Object: 4000 Aura

Vector Lash: 4000 Aura

Orbital Well: 4000 Aura

Mass Manipulation: 4000 Aura

Combine had opened up a whole new dynamic to Spells he had to consider. A really bloody enticing one.

But right now, he reluctantly had to admit that there were other things to worry about. It almost pained him to tear his attention away from the Spell menus, but he consoled himself with the knowledge that he didn't have the Aura to purchase anything right now anyway. With a sigh, he minimised his system and turned back to the group.

John froze.

Why are they all staring at me?

"Back with the world of the living there, John?" Doug asked with a toothy grin.

Oh. John's stomach dropped. I spaced out when someone was talking to me again.

This was far from a new experience for him, but it was as unpleasant as ever. At least he had a ready-made and hopefully understandable excuse this time—bonus points for being true.

"I was distracted by my new Spells," John said, making a point of not apologising, because he was fairly sure he'd get punished for that.

Doug just chuckled. "So I could see. I don't blame ya. Part of me just wants to get the fuck out of here and play around with the new thing I just got."

John tilted his head. "You got something, too?"

"Everyone levelled up, I'm pretty sure," Doug said.

There were nods all around, some more enthusiastic than others. Alissa's frown was nearly an upside-down "U", and her fingers were clenched in her biceps in a way that looked painful. Lily was smiling, but there was something sad in her eyes. Jade's expression was utterly blank. Chester, quite surprisingly, was smiling without a hint of the shell-shocked visage he'd been displaying before John got lost in his own little world of Spells.

"What's everyone got?" John asked.

While John kept up Mana Sense to ensure no ambushes, the group spent a few minutes revealing their shiny new abilities, and that ended up segueing into a deeper discussion about the specifics of each of their systems. Jade, Lily, and Chester were already known to him, of course, but even they had plenty to reveal.

"The first Spell is called Golden Edge. It doesn't need to be my machete," Jade said, frowning at said machete. "It can be any object with a sharp edge, I think. I could probably use it with my nails, if I filed them into spikes or something. But it's most effective with something already sharp, because the projection works by multiplying the sharpness of the object."

"Caustic Hand is the other one you've seen. Takes the shape of my hand, enlarged by multiples of twelve up to 120, deals various types of burns against anything I grab, based on the target's chemical composition. The bigger it is, the slower it is, and the lower its range."

"And the new Spell," Jade continued, doing little jazz hands with an utterly deadpan look, "is called Reaper's Toll. It lets me siphon off Soul from enemies when I injure them, rather than having to kill them—note that it specifies enemies and not monsters." She scoffed. "And that was the least objectionable Spell out of the stuff this piece of shit superpower offered me. Fucking brilliant, aye?"

"Your power specifies things?" John couldn't help but ask.

"Yeah," Jade said, eyeing him. "Yours doesn't?"

"I just get names," he said.

Jade just shrugged. "There had to be some downside to how bullshit versatile you are."

Lily went next.

"My power came with a ranged weapon by default," she explained with a strained voice. "I chose the one that seemed least distasteful to me. It's a self-loading crossbow with infinite ammo, and it can have a bunch of magical upgrades, including ammo. For my first level, I gave it the Triple Shot ability. Second gave it Poison Arrows. This latest one…" She trailed off and let out a sigh, shoulders slumping. "I can see weak points on enemies."

John hadn't missed the faint glow in her green eyes, like they were reflecting a nonexistent spotlight that was shining right in her face. It looked pretty cool, dimly glistening from beneath her motorcycle helmet—he made a mental note that she probably needed better gear than that.

Come to think of it, they all did. John himself was still wearing the red leather jacket he'd stolen from that one motorcycle couple's house. It apparently looked cool, but wasn't exactly great armour. He made a mental note to check out the Outfits Menu in his Inventory at some point, when Aura was more abundant.

"I'm all about drawing attention to myself," Chester said somewhat wryly—an attitude that greatly contrasted with the despair he'd been showing moments before. The explanation for that change came quickly: "To make it short, my first two Spells were all about making enemies focus on me, but now I have something that makes me tougher based on how many enemies I have aggro-ed."

John nodded to himself. It was no wonder Chester was feeling a bit more confident. It remained to be seen how long that would last in the face of actual battle, though.

"I believe I am closer to John in terms of versatility," Alissa said, her nostrils flared, "though it comes with a price and sticks to a certain theme I do not appreciate, as I have explained. At present, I possess superhuman reflexes, stamina, and strength, as well as a handful of minor abilities: Jade and Lily saw my… Love Bombs earlier. They are quite potent, if horrifically embarrassing, but they are my strongest ability at present."

"Little love heart thingies that explode on contact with enemies," Jade explained.

"Mortifying," Alissa spat.

"I thought they were cute," Lily said. "She had to make a love heart shape with her fingers."

"There is nothing cute about them," Alissa said. She took a breath. "I can also do something similar by blowing kisses, except the projectile creates a lipstick shape on whatever it touches, which then begins to melt away."

"Sounds tacky, but it's strong, trust me," Doug said. "My stuff's all about time, really, though not really in super straight forward ways. Don't think you'll see me travelling back into the past or some such until I'm much higher level. Right now, I can mess around with the ageing of my body a lot, but not completely. Hence why I look a bit strange."

The muscular physique paired with the skin of an old man did indeed make for an odd sight.

"That was because my first points went into a Spell that let me mess around with time related to my muscles and bones and innards and whatnot. I'm not vain enough to waste that shit on my appearance," Doug said with a wink. "Another let me slow down and speed up. After that I got an ability to, hm, store past actions? Hard to explain that one. And just now, I picked up a Spell that lets me freeze things in time for a few seconds. Nifty, hm?"

No one had any comments, and they lapsed into silence for a few seconds.

"Right," John said. "Here's what I can do."

It took a while to get through all John was capable of, and the others were boggling at him by the time he was done. He had to rely on his enhanced Agility and Mind to keep from fidgeting under their intense stares.

"Now that we know each other's powers better, does anyone have suggestions on how we should tackle this?" John said, gesturing to the bus depot.

There was no reply.

John allowed himself a soft sigh. "Okay then. Well, I do have some ideas."

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