As day turned to night, we had finished moving bases to the cave. We had salvaged all of the structures outside and had moved everything inside. Before our stamina wore out and we all went to sleep in our newly made beds, we talked around a campfire as we ate cooked meat and got to know each other better.
I laughed. "Yeah, we did not remember our names either, so I came up with a way to name ourselves. I named 8712 Isot and myself Seti. For 0992, I was thinking about Zint. For 4278 I was thinking about Font. And lastly for 2209, I was thinking about naming you Twon. I take one letter from each number and I make a four letter name. Do y'all think your names are good?"
Everyone nodded and thanked me for their names. Font was the previous leader of their tribe. He had brown hair, was broad shouldered, tall, and had brown eyes. I hadn't taken note of that mentally before.
Font grinned. "Do I have a bug on my face?"
I smirked. "Actually, there is a big fat mosquito on your cheek."
His eyes went to the side as he kept his face still. His hand came up like a thunderbolt and he smashed the mosquito.
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Subject 2209 has killed an Elephant Mosquito (level 2) and you have received 100/200 experience.
You have 6,400/100,000 experience needed for level 13.
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I snorted. "That actually gave me some experience."
Zint looked disgusted. "That thing is almost like two inches long!"
I looked down at Font's pants. "Only that long?"
Zint saw where I was looking, and she started laughing.
I turned my eyes up to his face. Font looked at me. "What's so funny?"
"That it chose you."
He frowned and I changed the subject. "So, what did you all do in your past lives, when did you die, and how old were you when you died? Like the year. I will start.
I was an Army Ranger in the United States military. I died in the year 2020 A.D. I was 25 years old."
Zint started next. "I was a professional MMA fighter and I lived in the United States. I shot guns and bows as a hobby. I died in the year 2048. I was 24."
Font continued. "I was a bodybuilder in Canada. I died in the year 2034. I lived to be 34."
Twon yawned and then began to talk slowly. "I lived in Mexico, and I was a hitman for a drug cartel. I am very good at using any weapon. I love to kill and so this habitat will become my playground of slaughter. Oh, and I died at 37."
I smiled, a little disturbed. Isot finished the spiel. "I have no idea what you guys are talking about. Those countries are unfamiliar and even some of those hobbies. I lived on a planet called Tridon. I was a Dungeon Hunter. I killed all sorts of mythical creatures from my world's ancient history. I was 59 years old."
Font frowned and then crossed his arms. "So do you know anything about mana? Is this experiment on people like us who have died something you remember being normal?"
"Mana was something that came with the dungeons to our world hundreds of years before I was born. I had no idea I would come here when I died. I did in fact believe in a religion."
I asked him a question too. "So, if you were a dungeon hunter why do you suck so much with the bow."
Isot frowned. "I never really used a bow in my Hunter career. I was a magic swordsman. I got to the point where I could create projectile aura. With a sweep of my hand, waves upon waves of weak enemies would die. I could concentrate my aura much smaller too for the tougher ones."
I smiled. "Okay boomer, let's talk about how everyone looks pretty damn young."
Zint smiled and cut in. "I bet that we have been given our bodies when we were at our prime physical condition. I have another question, what was everyone's starting stats? Mine looked like this: 90 health, 110 stamina, 95 speed, 260 weight, 180 strength, 60 combat sense, 0 mana capacity, and 0 Mana sense."
I responded. "Mine was: 100 health, 100 stamina, 90 speed, 300 weight, 250 strength, 80 combat sense, 0 mana capacity, and 0 Mana sense. Isot, you told me earlier that you didn't have mana, but you used mana in your past life."
Isot responded. "My stats used to be: 140 health, 180 stamina, 60 speed, 200 weight, 350 strength, 100 combat sense, 0 mana capacity, and 0 Mana sense.
I think the reason for that is due to the fact that this mana is different from the type I had in my world. I was looking at the soulstones earlier. I put two levels in the mana sense and I was able to absorb some of the mana from a soulstone, but not very effectively. It had 2 mana, but I only got 1 mana capacity from it before it shattered into a fine dust."
I interrupted Font as he began to speak, and I did not back down. "You will have to show me how soon."
Isot nodded. "Sure."
Font harrumphed. "Well as I was saying, my stats were as follows: 70 health, 80 stamina, 60 speed, 600 weight, 800 strength, 20 combat sense, 0 mana capacity, and 0 Mana sense."
I snorted so hard that some of the others probably thought I was trying to get some cocaine in my system. "We should have had you do all the heavy lifting today. I drained my health so much going back and forth overweight."
He grinned. "Well, that seems like a YOU problem."
Twon cut it. "Friends, I know you both think that you're hot shit, but let me get to my stats. Mine were: 180 health, 120 stamina, 120 speed, 160 weight, 200 strength, 95 combat sense, 0 mana capacity, and 0 Mana sense."
I nodded. "Well that's pretty good, but before I go to bed, can you show me how to use the soulstones Isot?"
"You have invested points into mana sense right?"
"Yeah it's at three."
"Oh nice, that will work well. I have got a few soulstones in my inventory, so we can use those."
He handed me two soulstones and I took the one out that was in my inventory. He took two out for himself and he set them down on the solid stone floor of the cave in front of him.
He looked up to my eyes. "To begin, you are going to want to close your eyes. Now, hold your breath. I want you to think only of the color red. Now, I want you to feel a cavity within you. Now, you are about to breathe in, but as you do, you are going to imagine you are breathing in a thick cloud of red dust down into that cavity. Now, breathe in."
I breathed in. As I did, I could feel an uncomfortably hot energy flooding down into my body like a fire. I opened my eyes. There was a stream of red mana coming from the three soulstones and into my body.
Isot spoke. "Nice, now just do that with orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet."
And so I did. Orange felt even hotter, like molten lava traveling down me. Yellow felt the hottest, like a laser beam destroying my throat.
Green felt much different; it felt like a nice cooling feeling going down my throat, like a breeze in the spring.
Blue felt cooler, but more consistent, like water from the depths of the clearest and cleanest lake.
Indigo felt like a bolt of lighting down my throat. It was jolting and sporadic.
Violet felt colder than any ice I had ever consumed. It probably felt like dry ice, though I could not say from experience.
As soon as I finished and I opened my eyes, I saw a window notification pop up in front of me.
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Status screen:
*You have gained 5 mana capacity points through training!*
Health → 87/110 (Regenerating). Stamina → 15/150. Speed → 100. Weight → 113.5/300. Strength → 250. Combat Sense → 80. Mana capacity → 5/5. Mana sense → 3.
Inventory: Soulstone, mana map, Crossbow, basic stone pickaxe, 31 arrows, 2 bolas, combat knife, 11 cooked meat, 1 Makeshift set, and a metal hatchet.
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I turned to Isot and smiled. "I got five points from those three."
He grimaced. "You lucky son of a bitch! I just got two points from these two, again!"
I shrugged. "We have five more Soulstones from that fight earlier, right? Use those and rank up your mana. You will be the most helpful with that stat, so use them and become more powerful."
He grinned. "Thanks, I will."