The silence in the classroom lasted only as long as the pause between Allisson’s breaths. Outside, the screams in the courtyard had ceased, replaced by muffled roars, the mechanical groans of collapsing structures, and the endless shatter of glass along the avenue.
Allisson wasted no time. With the [Lesser Mana Fragment] active, a subtle heat still circulated through his spine, staving off fatigue. He knelt beside the mutated feline’s carcass and examined the harvested materials.
The two mineralized claws were roughly six inches long. Their surface was pitch-black with a matte sheen reminiscent of a titanium-carbon alloy, their tips bearing a slight curve that sharpened toward the inner edge.
Basic physics: force equals mass times acceleration. But to pierce mutated hides or carapaces with 9 Dexterity and 12 Strength, I need to maximize pressure. Pressure is force divided by area.
He stared at the claw tips. The contact area of those mineral points was less than a single square millimeter.
Allisson walked toward the back row of desks. The room held roughly thirty sets of student desks made of hollow steel tubing and synthetic wood tops. He selected one with a slightly loose frame. Bracing the base against the floor, he used his body weight as leverage to bend the support bar until the weld gave out with a sharp metallic snap.
He now possessed a hollow, galvanized steel tube roughly four feet long.
Next, he stripped off his dress shirt, stained with sweat and dried blood, knowing he had a spare in his backpack for emergencies. Using the sharp edge of one of the claws, Allisson sliced the heavy cotton fabric into long, parallel strips, pulling them taut to test their tensile strength.
He positioned the two mineralized claws on opposite sides of the steel tube's tip, forming a split point: the left claw angled slightly outward, and the right claw mirroring it.
In this configuration, a single direct thrust would channel the impact force into two parallel puncture points, preventing the blades from sliding off the target’s hide.
Using the cloth strips, Allisson bound the base of the claws to the tube in a tight cross-twisting pattern, cranking every knot with the full strength of his arms. He finished the wrap with friction hitches to ensure the binding wouldn't slip under heavy impact.
The result was an improvised twin-point mineral spear.
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[IMPROVISED ITEM CREATED]
Name: Twin-Blade Alloy Spear
Type: Improvised Polearm (Piercing)
Usage Requirement: Strength 10 / Dexterity 8
Effect: Increases effective attack range by 5 feet. Deals double piercing damage on direct thrust attacks.
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Allisson wielded the weapon with both hands, sinking into his stance and delivering a test thrust into the air.
The weight was slightly tip-heavy, but the added leverage more than made up for his abysmal 9 Dexterity. The extra reach meant he wouldn't need to let a predator get within arm's reach to deliver a lethal blow.
Safety is an inverse function of proximity to danger.
He pressed his back against the cold classroom wall and closed his eyes for ten seconds, turning his perception inward.
With his Constitution increased from 6 to 7, the persistent ache in his lower back and the burning sensation in his throat when breathing deeply were entirely gone.
The excess abdominal fat remained, but the underlying muscular structure felt firmer, capable of supporting his weight without the joint overload that had plagued him for years.
His eyes drifted to the counter in the corner of his vision.
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[AVAILABLE FREE POINTS: 2]
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Allisson weighed his options. Investing two points into Dexterity would raise the stat to 11, pushing him past the human average and boosting his reaction time. Putting them into Constitution would raise his stamina and impact tolerance.
However, he reasoned, a point allocated prematurely is a rigid resource. If I encounter a beast with thick armor, I'll need Strength. If I run into an exceptionally agile predator in a narrow corridor, I'll need Dexterity. If I am poisoned or severely injured, Constitution could be the difference between life and death.
The mathematical conclusion was simple: the volatility of the situation demanded a volatile response. He would keep the two Free Points in reserve, ready to allocate instantly based on the specific threat encountered.
Staying locked in this classroom was a death sentence through stagnation. As the monsters outside devoured other organisms and absorbed ambient Mana, the average level of the local fauna would rise. If he fell behind the growth curve, he would become prey.
Allisson gripped the improvised spear with his right hand, adjusted his center of gravity, and stepped toward the classroom door.
The first-floor hallway was steeped in heavy shadow. The only illumination came from the full moon filtering through the far windows, casting long, distorted shadows of broken desks and scattered paper across the floor.
The smell of blood was vastly stronger out here. A few yards ahead, near the flight of stairs leading to the courtyard, a dark streak painted the ceramic wall, ending in a thick pool where a single abandoned shoe lay.
Allisson moved with short, calculated steps, landing heel-first and rolling his foot to the toes to minimize noise against the tiles.
His 17 Perception operated at maximum capacity: he tracked the rhythmic drip of a cracked pipe in the men's restroom, the shift in air currents coming off the stairwell, and the subtle groans of the building settling.
Suddenly, he froze.
Thirty feet away, on the hallway's drop ceiling, a shadow shifted.
It wasn't a feline. The thing looked like an overgrown garden centipede expanded to the size of a human torso, its dozens of jointed, chitinous legs anchoring silently into the ceiling tiles. Two long, thin antennae quivered in the air, tracking the corridor's humidity and heat signature.
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[THREAT IDENTIFICATION]
Name: Mana Centipede
Level: 3
System Note: High chitinous armor. Blind; hunts exclusively via ground vibrations.
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Allisson halted his stride instantly, his left foot hovering two inches above the floor.
Zero vision. Sensitive to vibrations.
The creature began to crawl along the ceiling, descending slowly toward the top of the restroom doorway—positioning itself directly in the path needed to reach the stairs.
Allisson lowered the tip of his mineral spear, aligning the twin black spikes with the creature's center of mass on the ceiling. He began calculating the entry angle, the chitin's density, and the reaction window required for the first strike.