Chef in the Apocalypse

Back in the present day, Jayce had further cleared the place where they would be setting up the teleportation array. Thankfully the area was rather clean, at least compared to the rest of the dilapidated city.

Once they had finished clearing the area, Jayce retrieved the blueprint from his inventory and placed it on the ground carefully. Although this would be his fourth time building such an array, they were so complicated that he was afraid of making a mistake and possibly sending them somewhere completely random.

Or even worse, there was a possibility that their bodies could become fractured whilst traveling through the two gates. This was something that had happened before in his previous life when the researchers were too hasty.

"Jackie, Amber, please draw the array." Jayce asked politely, giving them some room to work.

"You don’t need to tell me twice," Jackie quipped, moving into position across from Amber. They channeled mana into their fingers and began to trace a larger version of the complicated magic circle that was placed on the ground next to them.

Unlike drawing with a pencil, mages could control their mana to the most miniscule of details, provided their mana manipulation skill was at a high enough level. Luckily for Jayce, their control was more than enough for this task.

They carefully and efficiently drew the magic circle, making sure to not make any mistakes. After around 30 minutes the duo had successfully completed the outline. They stepped back, feeling a little tired after expending a lot of their mana.

Jayce quickly looked over the outline and was happy with the results. The reason he needed help from the two ladies was that while he had gained the Mana Affinity ability, he did not have the Mana manipulation ability. This meant that while he could feel and utilize mana, he did not have the same level of control as a mage.

In the next moment, Jayce sat down with his legs crossed and began to produce a bunch of normal looking weapons and armor, placing it into a pile next to him. He then poured out a bunch of ordinary looking stones which were circular in shape.

The first time the girls had seen Jayce do this, they were quite confused. The ordinary looking stones were to be used as the fuel for the mana circle that Jackie and Amber had traced out earlier. Of course they could not be used as they were now, which was where Jayce came in.

He casually grabbed a plain looking kitchen knife, bringing it up to his face to inspect it.

[Would you like to use Reroll on the item Kitchen Knife?] [Y/N]

[You have used skill Reroll]

[Congratulations, your item Kitchen Knife has been upgraded to Sharp Kitchen Knife (rare)]

Jayce’s face broke out into a smile, satisfied with the result. He placed the upgraded knife aside in another pile, before picking up his next piece of ordinary equipment. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

[Would you like to use Reroll on the item Poor Body Armor?] [Y/N]

[You have used skill Reroll]

[Congratulations, your item Poor Body Armor has been upgraded to Sturdy Body Armor (uncommon)]

[You have used skill Reroll]

[Failure, your item has been destroyed]

[You have used skill Reroll]

[You have used skill Reroll]

[You have...]

By the end of his Reroll bonanza, Jayce had successfully Rerolled 80 out of 95 common items into something much better. The process hadn’t taken too long, however everytime he used the skill, it drained some of his mana which made him tired.

Despite Jayce’s large stat pool, using the skill almost 100 times had still taken a large chunk of his mana reserves. He took a moment to compose himself, before looking at the two girls who were chatting away while they waited for their leader to finish.

The conversation was merely a continuation of their grievances about the state of the city. Jayce’s eyebrow twitched before he said in a cold tone, "Ahem, if you would be so kind as to help me with this next step."

The girls looked at each other, feeling like a child who had been scolded. They knew that Jayce tended to be overly polite when he was annoyed, therefore they did not dilly-dally, coming to his side at once and placing their hands on his back.

Jayce nodded, getting back to business before the women decided to continue whinging. He held one of the ordinary looking stones in his left hand and picked up a few of his newly upgraded weapons in his other.

"Enhance." he said aloud.

At these words Jackie and Amber began pouring their mana slowly into Jayce through his back, acting as an additional source of fuel for his skill. With Jayce’s Mana Affinity skill, he was able to accept the foreign mana from both the weapons and the two girls.

He began to will the mana from his back and the weapons towards his left hand which held the ordinary looking stone, filling it as if he were filling a cup with water. He continued the process until he felt some resistance, before quickly pulling back the influx of mana.

"Stop." he said simply, opening his eyes. Jackie and Amber stepped back, panting slightly.

[Enhancement has been used]

[Enhancement successful]

[Magicite has been enhanced to Middle-tier Magicite]

The stone in Jayce’s left hand began to glow brightly, taking on a light blue color. It was a complete change from its earlier appearance, causing one to do a double-take.

Magicite was a mineral that appeared in great quantities after the Apocalypse had descended. It wasn’t properly discovered until 2 years later, where it took over the world and became the common currency. The name was later changed to Mana stones for short.

Mana stones were essentially stones that could hold mana. While this may not seem very impressive to begin with, it opened up countless possibilities for all sorts of avenues. It’s discovery had a similar effect on the world as the industrial revolution, breathing life and ingenuity into the world that had been ravaged by the Apocalypse.

There were 4 tiers of mana stones. Dormant mana stones, which were the ones that Jayce had in a huge pile next to him. Low-tier Mana stones, Mid-tier and High-tier made up the other three.

Dormant mana stones were able to absorb the mana around them rather easily, however it would take a long time for it to evolve into a low-tier stone. Jayce was probably the only person on Earth that could enhance a dormant mana stone into a mid-tier, and that was at the cost of some uncommon and rare weapons.

It would take him too long to mine enough mid-tier mana stones to set up a teleportation array. Not to mention he would have to locate a large deposit of Magicite, before employing an equally high amount of physical laborers to mine the damn thing.

This was something that he could look at in the future, but for now he would use this shortcut. After all, his current priority was to gather people for the Human Alliance before the next World Quest happened.

"Next." Jayce said, his eyes determined.

Jackie and Amber sighed before placing their hands on Jayce’s back once again, expecting a tiring afternoon. With that, the trio began the arduous task of enhancing the dormant magicite stones into mid-tier mana stones.