A technomancer's journey in an apocalyptic world

"We need food, clothing, medicine but most importantly protection, without them we are dead."

"I understand your concern mister Anndrais but we cannot magically grow food, clothes or medicine, there are over a thousand people in this base, until and unless we work together it would be nigh impossible for us to gather so much, it is simple mathematics how can barely thirty-something can gather so much stuff, as such I am asking you to cooperate with us, it would be faster and easier then."

Ryan strained his eyes as he listened to the conversation at the other side of the door, he could identify the complaining voice to be a male but the female one was definitely that of his sister.

"And the faster we could gather, the faster every one of us especially the young ones would be able to receive food, clothing and medicine, we are not asking you to work for us like the pig from before, but please cooperate so that we can finish everything faster and smoother."

'That was Ylerias who was speaking just now.'

A sigh was heard as the male spoke again, "I understand you may have any strong men or women who would want to venture forth."

"Thank you Professor Anndrais for being so understanding, and I assure you with additional people we would be able to gather the necessities so much faster."

The person in question simply grunted at that as he spoke, "What about the wife and daughter of that pig?"

"What about them?"

Was the quick question by Ylerias, as the person spoke with a sigh, "The people asking for them to be banished from the base, we do not want them."

"Tell me Professor Anndrais, what is their crime? Have you ever thought what she and her poor daughter had to suffer under that man's hands, have you ever thought what they had to suffer, they themselves were slaves just like you, I understand you are angry with them for their association with the slaver, but for a moment please close your eyes, clear your mind and think, just place yourselves in their shoes and think, being married to that person, trying to shelter your daughter from him, a daughter that is mute, then one day the world changed you and your daughter are nothing but a slave for a very vile man who ironically is also your husband."

Silence descended in the room, while on the outside Ryan's jaw hung low, 'No way they are his wife and daughter then the husband-wife act was all false, I do not know whether to be angry or not, this is so confusing.'

A tired sigh was all that came to his ears as the person spoke again, "I understand, I will see what I can do to make others agree to my viewpoint and in the meantime please make sure to keep them away from us as others may not take too kindly to their presence, till then if there is nothing left then I will take my leave."

Ryan's eyes widen monetarily as he quickly moved towards the door knocking it, 'Well if I am going to get caught for eavesdropping let me confess it.'

"I clearly told that we were to be left alone and disturbed during the meeting."

As Ylerias's voice came from inside as Ryan quickly spoke, "Sorry, but I have not received any such notice."

There was a brief moment of silence as Ylerias quickly spoke, "Please Lo… Ryan, please enter and take a seat.", 

As he pushed opened the door the sound of a chair being pushed was heard, he looked forwards and saw Ylerias standing up, while Michalina was still seating on a chair, and the other person a man of around fifty standing on the other side of Michalina just across the table looking at Ryan curiously.

As the person looked at Ryan he saw him looking at him curiously as Michalina spoke, "Let me introduce you to my brother Ryan O'Cahill", she then turned towards Ryan as she spoke, "Ryan this is Professor Anndrais Rosser, Professor on Computer Science from National Institute of Science and Technology."

Ryan gave a small smile as he spoke, "A pleasure to meet you professor.", he slowly began to move towards the professor using his crutch with his hand extended.

A warm smile came across the face as he stepped forward as they shook each other hands, "A pleasure to meet you too."

Ryan felt a bit unnerved as Anndrais's eyes looked deeply into his eyes studying them before he spoke, "Such fascinating eyes you have", which further seemed to increase his grimace but before he could speak anything the professor let go of his hand as he made his way towards the door as he spoke, "Well I have work to do so see you later."

Ryan gave a small nod as the person left, Ryan then turned towards the other as he went towards a chair before sending a small nod towards Ylerias as he spoke, "Good Evening Lady Ylerias."

"Good Evening Ryan, I hope you are well."

Ryan gave a nod as he spoke, "I am much better than before and I hope that by day after tomorrow I will not need the crutch anymore."

Ylerias nodded as she spoke, "Then shall we begin our class.", as Ryan nodded her gaze fell upon Michalina as she spoke, "Well be staying with us?"

Michalina simply nodded as she spoke, "Yes my lady if you have no problem I would also want to learn something."

Ylerias simply tilted her head as she spoke, "Fair enough though would like to warn you that I am not sure what has happened to our world as such there is a chance that my knowledge might be useless."

"Even then lady Ylerias I would like to learn from you, as at the very least I will not have to flounder about in the dark."

Ylerias acknowledged Ryan's words with a small smile on her face as she spoke, "Very well then let us begin, let us start our lesson with yourself, first tell me if you have any questions regarding your powers, level or any such thing I believe you should have many after your upgrade."

"I have plenty actually when I finished my upgrading many changes had taken place as such I have a mountain load of questions, like after I reached Tier 10, I received a notification that I ascended and a bunch of new stuff popped up like circle and what not. So…."

Ylerias nodded at that as she spoke, "I understand, let us speak about ascension first and foremost, there are few Tiers that are known as the threshold, reaching that threshold is known as ascension like you have reached the tenth Tier, there are similar tiers that are of great importance, like 25, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 650 and 850, with each level you will activate something like a circle, or some skill or perks. So Ryan, tell me do you know what a perk is?"

Ryan nodded at that as he spoke, "It is a kind of skill?"

Ylerias shook her head as she spoke, "No it is a bit crude but no, perks are kind of mutation one undergoes when placed under certain conditions like being forced to endure poisonous substances can cause a normal person to gain the poison resistance perk."

Ryan frowned at that as he spoke, "But I…"

Ylerias stopped him from speaking as she spoke, "I said a normal person, not an apostle, we are different to the point I doubt we can call ourselves normal, as I have mentioned before we are as a champion or avatar of our patron Goddess or Gods, we are different unlike us many would not even gain any perk whereas we, well you know by how many perks we have managed to gain."

Ryan nodded as Michalina spoke with a frown, "Is there any limit to the number of perks one can have?"

Ylerias nodded at that as she spoke, "Yes, though initially you will only have ten, but in some cases after reaching a threshold a person might gain extras, also if you find that a perk has some form of similarity they tend to fuse to create a single one new one, as such if you are careful you might end up using an extremely large number of perks."

"The best part of a perk is the ease of its use, now for skills or techniques there are three types, external, internal and support, external skills are those that when used causes a change in the environment, by change I mean a fireball flung towards the enemy, healing spell that closes and cures a wound, they are affecting the surrounding as such they are called external, the support simply supports the other skills."

She took a drink from the glass of water to soothe her throat as she continued, "Now the next is internal, internal simply affect the person who is using it, like for example stone flesh, stone flesh simple hardens the skin of the caster to make them near as strong as stone, so far do you have any questions?"

"um, can you please give an example of 'Support skill'?"

Ylerias nodded at that as she spoke, "Support skills are rare but very useful, the best example I can think of is 'Multi Cast', just think for a moment you are sitting with five friends who are talking with five different subjects that are completely unrelated to each other, now can you talk with them the same time or can you talk with them one by one?"

"Of course I will have to speak with them one by one."

Ylerias nodded at that as she spoke, "Skills are the same, you cannot invoke two skills at the same time, you may have to invoke them one by one, although they may be active together after the invocation, you can only invoke them one at a time and this is where 'Multi Cast'comes into effect as it enables you to invoke two or more different skills at the same time."

"So I have given you the basics of the type of skills, are you with me so far?"

The siblings gave a nod as Ylerias continued, "Now before we move back to 'Circle', there is something you should know about skills and perks, perks are difficult to gain by normal people, not to mention there is a limit to it, as such people have created skills that mimic the effect of certain perks take for example the perk 'Hawk-Eye', a perk that enables one to gain not only a sharp vision but also increases their range. Now there exists a skill with a similar name, so Ryan, can you guess what can be the drawback of the skill in comparison to the perk?"

Ryan's face scrunched up in deep thought for a moment before he spoke, "Well from what I have observed perks do not need Mana to activate, but skills do."

"Absolutely correct, the skills need mana to activate or in some cases, it requires a constant supply of Mana to keep it activated, but perks do not, another con about skill is that the more you use the better you get and it takes time from a few days to even decades in some cases to master it completely, again if we go back to the previous example 'Hawk-Eye', after spending time trying to completely mastering it you will find that you have the same amount of efficiency as someone who had just received the perk 'Hawk-Eye'."

She took a small breath as she continued again, "Even after completely mastering the skill, you might see that the mana requirement, the cast time has been lowered for the 'Hawk-Eye', but using it continuously will cause you to develop farsightedness, such problems will never occur in case of the perk, because the skill activating every time forces and causes your eye to suffering severe strain. But, that does not mean using a skill is bad in place of perks in some cases after all perks are limited but skills are not so you will have to think carefully before choosing whether you have to use a skill or a perk of the same nature."

"I hope you have managed to learn something Ryan?"

Ryan nodded at that as he spoke, "Of course my lady."

Ylerias smile sudden disappeared while she gained a frigid cold look on her face as she spoke, "Are my lessons boring Ryan?", her head then swivelled towards Michalina as if she was a horror movie character as she spoke, "Michalina what about you?"

Both the siblings sat ramrod as they quickly shook their head as Ylerias's eyes narrowed further, "Then why are you kicking each other, did you think that I would not be able to catch you kicking each other instead of paying attention to me."

Ryan sudden found the table to be rather interesting as Ylerias snapped back at him, "Look at me Ryan when I am speaking to you."

Ryan sat a bit straighter as she continued, "I teaching you something rather important and instead you are thinking me screaming my throat hoarse and wasting my time is fun for you."

She then looked at the scowling face of Michalina as she spoke, "And you, are you, not the older sibling? Given the fact that Ryan has to deal with truly dangerous stuff soon as he is an apostle, such basic knowledge is extremely vital for him, and yet here you are distracting him, fine kick each other as long as you want, I am leaving."

With that, she stood up abruptly as her chair as she made her way towards the door swiftly but before she left turned to speak with a sigh, "Ryan, if you decide to act a bit mature and act like your station, dictates you might find me but next time alone, I do not like to be disturbed so make sure you arrive without any distraction."

As soon as she left Ryan turned towards Michalina as he glared at her as he spoke, "That was so your fault, who knows what she is thinking about us now."

Michalina gave him a sheepish smile as she spoke, "Oh come on bro, her lecture was a bit boring."

Ryan growled as he stamped on her feet hard a sickening crunch followed along with the sound of pain-filled gasp escaping Michalina's lips which drained Ryan's blood from his face as he quickly kneeled by her side profusely apologizing to her, 'Damn it I should check my strength I ended up hurting my sister.'