System Breaker: Surviving Apocalypse with Nine-Tailed Kitsune-Chapter 14: Rift Shards
"Missed me?" She asked in her usual playful tone.
"I thought you were asleep," Damon replied, trying to remain composed. ππ«ππ²π¨πππππ―ππΉ.ππ¨πΊ
"I was..." she replied, moving slightly toward him.
Her finger pressed against the middle of his chest, trailing slowly in circles, the mana inside of his body obeying each movement, circling right where her finger was. The sensation was both unsettling and invasive, as if someone could move blood in his own body.
"Ohh?" Kitsuneβs eyes widened for a second as Damon grabbed her hand, but then her lips curved into an even wider smile, and her crimson eyes gleamed with mischief.
Her lips parted to speak, but before she could continue to tease him, a loud scream cut through the destroyed neighbourhood. It was a desperate and unmistakably human cry.
Damon saw Kitsuneβs playful expression turn to a pout before he jumped to his feet.
βGood timingβ he thought to himself, shaking the faint feeling of fluster away.
Kitsune lingered behind for a moment, still pouting, before she turned back into her fox form, preserving whatever was left of her mana.
While moving toward the direction of the sound, Damon realised that she didnβt simply absorb half of his mana away, it was more like half of his mana was permanently put aside, for only her to use. His heart pounded with unease at the idea.
A moment later, he was already on top of a larger pile of rubble, from where he saw a human run away from a hound-like monster.
Damon frowned slightly.
The monster looked larger than a wolf, but it didnβt particularly strike him as a monster one should immediately run away from.
"Youβre going to save him?" Kitsuneβs voice cut through the thoughts in his head.
Damon didnβt plan to go around and save people, but a new monster meant a monster index bonus, and he wouldnβt waste an opportunity to raise his stats.
***
"Ahhhh! Help!" A young man with brown hair screamed as he ran away from the massive hound, its claws scratching against the cracked asphalt. The monster was fast, catching up to the man with each moment until-
Blood sprayed from the houndβs neck, where the long tachi connected.
The brown-haired man turned as the sudden thumping of the hound chasing after him subsided, and saw a tall man pull a long tachi from the monsterβs neck. His eyes widened at the sight, but as they trailed toward the manβs shoulder, where a small white fox sat, he frowned.
***
[You have slain a Level 13 Undead Hound.]
[New Monster Index bonus: +2 Stamina, +5 Dexterity]
Damonβs lips curved into a smile at the sound of the notification. He had been lacking in dexterity for a while, receiving a bonus of exactly what he needed was a great luck.
βGood thing I intervened,β he thought, just as the young man with brown hair approached him from the side.
"Thank you!" he yelled, bowing deeply as if Damon was some kind of royalty. "Thank you so much!"
"Yeah, yeah" Damon waved dismissively as he turned around. The location of the building where he and his best friend lived wasnβt far now, maybe a 20-minute walk. There was no point wasting any more time-
"Iβm Victor," The young man suddenly said, "Whatβs your name?"
"Damon" he replied after a moment of hesitation, before continuing his walk toward his apartment building.
Victor, however, followed after him, continuing his conversation oblivious to Damonβs dislike.
"Are you travelling alone? I was in a group, but he got attacked by a horde of zombies and then-"
Suddenly, Damon came to a halt, causing Victorβs mumbling to stop. He took a long look at the person before him. He was scrawny, shorter than him by almost a foot and only had a dagger attached to his utility belt.
It was almost a miracle he was alive. The dagger at his belt looked more decorative than functional, it resembled a kitchen knife more than a weapon.
"I donβt need company" Damon said in a flat voice before turning and leaving Victor behind.
***
"You know heβs following you, right?" Kitsune said in his head.
βOf course I know, heβs barely trying to hide it.β
"So youβre gonna let him?"
βHeβll die sooner or later,β Damon shrugged as he began to make sense of his surroundings. He was no longer surrounded by complete rubble, though there was plenty of that. Many buildings around him were still standing, giving him a glimpse of hope that his home might be too. He was only minutes away from reaching his apartment building.
"Why donβt you use the Rift Shards to raise our mana?" Kitsune asked in an almost excited tone.
"Our mana? Wait, Rift Shards?"
Damon came to a halt.
"You donβt know? You get Rift Shards for destroying Rift Cores. They should be in your inventory."
Without wasting a second, Damon opened his inventory, and to his surprise, it was there.
[Small Rift Shard]
[Quantity: 2]
[Description: Can be used to raise any stat below 30 by 2 points.]
His eyes widened.
βWhy didnβt you tell me this earlier?β
Kitsune didnβt answer his question and instead asked one of her own in a soft, almost pleading tone.
"Can we use it on mana?"
