<Alex, Real - All Dead? Is It Permanent?, Burnt Out Art Gallery>

Alex was not in a good place, and that wasn't just referencing the mostly squashed undead that was still writhing beneath him.

He almost unconsciously sent a flick of health into it, causing it to burst into ash.

Even so, he was a jumbled mess, on the floor of an undead infested art gallery, and his right hand was bleeding, with a massive gash across his palm, exposing the inner workings therein.

That's… horrifying.

Wounds: Deep Gash, severe x 1 [500 HP x 1 required to heal]

First things first, he clamped his hand shut, instantly reducing the heal cost in HP by half. His left hand instinctively reached over to add compression, reducing the HP needed to only 50.

Ten seconds. He'd need to fight without either hand for almost ten seconds. He tried to get his knees under him and get up.

Then, the first undead hit him.

The impact rolled off the defense of his jacket, staggering him as he tried to stand, but not really hurting.

It was still disorienting.

Roughly nine seconds to heal? That's one.

His feet had clipped the glass too, but his Traveler's Shoes had, blessedly, protected them, and even now, they were giving him a firmer footing than he really should have had given his disorientation and the junk-strewn floor.

His Danger Sense warned him in time now that he was a bit more focused. He spun, leaning heavily on his Advanced Kinesthetics, and even so, he was only barely able to change the angle of impact of the second undead.

Two.

Again, his greatcoat softened the blow, and he was able to use the energy of the hit to come the rest of the way to his feet.

He couldn't simply ash all these undead, because it would take far too much of his health and mana, given their numbers and effectively full health. He also needed to conserve his resources in the hopes of finding more Initiates to return from undeath.

This whole situation was far from ideal.

He felt an odd desperation swelling up within him as his Danger Sense started screaming, almost making it impossible for him to understand the myriad threats coming his way.

Then, he released his attempts to comprehend, and he simply acted.

Three.

He extended a foot, using that reach to Create Rations, specifically a bar under the foot of an undead that was almost upon him, spoiling its footing and causing it to slip and slam into the ground, sliding past him. A burst of Create Water dosed the fiery head of a flaming skeleton that was charging from the side, causing it to collapse into a pile of bones.

Alex then brought his clenched fists up in a powerful blow that threw an undead fodder away, giving him an instant of space.

Four.

An odd sensation of cold began creeping up his back, and he could almost feel his resist magic attribute come into play, even as he shoved the notification aside without reading it.

Following instinct more than anything else, he bent his mana sense to finding the incoming attack and then set upon it with mana manipulation. It was the equivalent of a toddler charging at an adult with a knife, but in conjunction with his resistance, it kept him safe for another moment.

A charging toddler with a knife would be rather terrifying.

Five.

There were too many coming in, now. He created a small force blade on his own forehead and headbutt a slavering ravager that came in, trying to take a bite out of his neck. That, coupled with his dodge, drove the spike into the slavering thing's brain, dropping it in a single blow.

Six.

He almost sent some of his blood—filled with health—into some of the surrounding undead, but it would be a terrible time to lose consciousness due to a reduced volume of blood, and his hand was already bleeding enough, even if it was quickly closing.

Instead, he twisted beneath a swiping arm and delivered two Multi-Strike empowered kicks to bone lurkers than had been about to set upon him.

He was dealing with the greatest threats, but he was still being mobbed.

Seven.

He triggered Force Burst, throwing the mass of clawing undead backward, breaking bones, crunching bodies, and popping organs with the force of the impact.

Below him, the floor groaned. He hadn't had the mental space to try to direct the force, and the floor had not liked the impact. Thankfully, it had been a basic use of the spell, so the floor held up well enough.

Eight.

In a shocking display of luck, just as Alex's Force Burst faded, Grant hit the floor with a yell, already swinging his war-hammer to brain a rising ravager. His attack exploded through its skull, far less blow-out evidence of his use of Leave No Trace.

Off to one side, an undead Alex hadn't seen before had its eyes locked on him, and his danger sense and mana sight combined to tell him that that was the source of the magics seeking to weaken him.

Yeah, no. Can't have that. Despite his previously 'better' judgement, Life Blood Transfusion deposited some blood into the undead, carrying a horse-load of health. It took more than half of Alex's MP to do it, as he'd had to overcome its magical defenses, but the result was instantly obvious.

As it turned out, results aside, it had been better judgement to forgo that skill…

Still, the magical effect trying to take hold of Alex broke off, and verdant veins began spreading through the undead's body, dissolving pale flesh.

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An instant later, a tack sounded, and its head exploded from a precise John-origin shot.

Nine! The wound was all but sealed. As another half-second passed, Alex unclasped his hands, his dadao appearing in them in the same moment. Let's do this.

Sword in hand, the mini-horde seemed far less threatening, and he took the time to sweep his Analyze across them.

There didn't seem to be any more oddities, and the magic-using ones seemed to be dead… Except the flaming skeleton, which had reignited and was standing back up. Great.

Natasha came down next, leaving John in an overwatch position. That was different than they'd planned, but they also hadn't planned for Alex's tumble. Plans changed. It was fine.

That immediately took the remainder of the pressure off, as Alex, Grant, and Natasha were getting very comfortable fighting side by side.

The flaming skeleton went down again after Grant caved in the skull, and John pegged it in the sternum, practically detonating its ribcage. Alex made sure to ash that one as quickly as possible, just to be sure.

Maybe it wasn't a trap-gone wrong that sent this place up…

After that, it was just clean up work, and it only took them another handful of moments to mop up the remaining enemies on the level as the undead helpfully brought themselves to the waiting trio.

After a full thirty seconds of silence had followed the death of the last, Alex began to move among the twice-dead, ashing them with minimal health and mana.

Most would have come back to unlife in time, so it was worth the minor expenditure.

When he'd finished, and still no further undead had arrived, John dropped down to join them. By this point, they were all strong and fortified enough to take a fifteen foot drop just fine… assuming they did it feet first.

The other three all gave Alex inquiring looks, and Alex scratched the side of his head, grimacing. "Yeah… First of all, sorry about that. Obviously entirely unintentional. Now, let's never discuss that again…"

Natasha shook her head and snorted a laugh.

Grant did a poor job of containing a smile, and John reached out and patted Alex on the shoulder. "Sometimes these things happen. I'm just glad it didn't take you out."

"Well… Thank you for that."

But John continued. "If that's how you died, I don't think that I could have attended your funeral with a straight face." He shook his head. "That has got to be one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen, and I grew up on AFV." He considered. "It probably would have fit there quite nicely, actually. I think it was as funny as it was because you didn't really get hurt in a lasting way. Otherwise, it would have been horrifying."

Grant started nodding. "Yeah! Like the three stooges. If that happened to a real person, it would be awful, but since they were never really hurt? Hilarious."

Natasha cracked a small smile but didn't add any comment.

Alex opened his mouth to explain, but then stopped himself, realizing that doing so would just make it worse. "Yeah, yeah."

They didn't waste more time, moving through the space, looking for any evidence of another Initiate.

They found a big man, cut clean in half… Well, to be fair, they only found half of him.

It was a gruesome sight as, without the other half, there was nothing really keeping his insides… inside.

Still, they knew they'd found an Initiate as the counter updated.

Initiates' Fate Discovered: 3/6

Alex steeled himself and checked the body, following his Mana Sense to find two rings on the dead man's only hand, both were amazing, showing that this group had been doing some great things. Or, they had at least been getting great rewards.

Ring of Regeneration (Health), Simple Once Attuned, this ring will double the wearer's health regeneration.

Ring of Regeneration (Mana), Simple Once Attuned, this ring will double the wearer's mana regeneration

Apology Tutorial Notice: It takes twenty four hours to attune a magical item that requires that, and removing the item for even a moment will restart that timer.

Additional note: Yes, having it forcibly removed counts.

Alex's eyes widened. How could such things be considered 'Simple'? He supposed that it wasn't actually that large of a boost, numerically. The mana regeneration potion he had was 30 times that, even if only for a short time, and straight mana potions gave hundreds of points all at once. It would take almost a quarter hour for him to get that many points with this ring.

But it's constant… That was likely the balance.

He almost just put both rings on. But, after a moment's hesitation, he sighed and showed the rings to his party. "If possible, I would really like the health one. I already have an incredibly high healing factor, and so this would give me more health regeneration than it would give anyone else in our group. Still, if someone else wants it—or thinks someone else should have it—I'm open to hearing why."

There were some exchanged looks, but no one protested. Then, Natasha cleared her throat. "I think Pilar should get the mana one."

John let out a long breath. "Thank you, Natasha. I didn't want to be the one to say it first. She isn't here, after all, so it's a little odd for her to get some of the loot."

The woman shook her head. "It's good to support your wife, John. No one will fault you for it. She's also our front-line magic use. I think everyone wants her to have more mana."

Still, the man shrugged, clearly a bit embarrassed, even while he was just as obviously grateful.

Alex nodded, handing over the red-gold ring to John for safe-keeping. It vanished into the man's Inventory.

Alex looked down at his own ring. It was of a dark grey metal, and felt almost alive with power, even though it was cool to the touch.

Without too much thought, he slipped it on his right ring finger. After all, it was a ring, and his left one was occupied. It shrunk slightly, easily fitting comfortably once in place.

Alex smiled gratefully to his companions. "In one day, this will be incredible."

As if on cue, they started to hear noises coming down the stairs.

Alex looked down at his ring in horror before looking around. "No… this isn't enough of a reward to trigger a boss… right?"

The others shrugged, even as they got ready to face whatever was coming.

It wasn't exactly footsteps coming down. Well, more accurately, it wasn't only footsteps coming down.

There was an undercurrent of scrapping and thumping around the footfalls.

A moment later, a dozen undead fodder spilled out of the base of the stairs, clearly having been pushed by the ravager variants behind them.

The humans weren't right beside the stairs so the three melee fighters covered the distance as quickly as they could, even while John nailed the heavier hitters between the eyes with shot after shot.

Alex momentarily reflected on how much trust they had in John, given none of them even flinched as his shots flicked past them through the small gaps they left.

Before the System, such shots between closely packed friendlies could just have easily led to disaster.

The thought was gone as fast as it had come, and Alex was engaging the lesser undead.

His recent fight helped him keep his other skills and spells in mind, and while he didn't feel comfortable enough with Force Blast to use it so close to allies, others came to his aid.

Multi-strike let him kill and ash in record time, Life's Active Defense helped him mitigate damage rather than just healing through it, and Danger Sense was constantly guiding his actions, along with his kinesthetic and blade skills.

He did not Create Rations again in an odd attempt to spoil the footing of his foes. He honestly wasn't really sure where that idea had come from, and he didn't plan on repeating it… unless he needed to.

There were a lot of them pouring out of the stairwell, and sounds indicated even more, but this wasn't so bad, all things considered.

It seemed that the rings hadn't triggered a boss encounter.

No sooner had that thought come to Alex then the wall higher up exploded, exposing a portion of the stairwell and revealing a many bodied skeletal snake, each head already striking forward.

John cursed, even as he rattled off a series of shots. "Soggy fries!"

Alex back peddaled, only one thought coming to mind. Oh, so that's a slither-bane.

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