Chef in the Apocalypse

"Oh shit it worked." Jayce exclaimed in surprise. He suddenly felt as if his mana had a mind of its own, continuing to circulate throughout his meridians slowly. He quickly opened up his status window, wanting to confirm the effects of his new skill.

Mana Circulation (lvl. 1) - Your mana now circulates automatically, granting 10% increased mana regeneration and cast speed.

"This is pretty good, especially for level 1."

While he was pleasantly surprised with this skill, this wasn’t his original intention when he decided to check out his body. During his fight with the Draconic Panthers, he had learned the Mana Manipulation skill before it had evolved to Spell Creation.

Jayce had noticed ever since that moment, his mana had been subconsciously flowing towards his dagger whenever he attacked with it. This bore the question, what if he purposefully guided the mana?

Would he be able to reinforce his attacks with mana? Similar to those cultivation novels which would use their inner strength, or Qi to do the same. Were melee skills similar to mages spells, which became automated when made into a skill?

’Does that mean I can create melee skills as well?’ Jayce thought. His intuition seemed to be pushing him from behind, as if he had caught onto something amazing.

He looked around the room, deciding that it was a bad idea to do any physical training in here. Getting to his feet, he made his way out the door and looked for a training field somewhere. If he couldn’t find one he would have to venture out into the forest, which was fine by him.

As he left the cabin, he ran into Tony who was floating about. "Ah, Mr. Jayce would you like to tour the city now?"

Jayce ignored the question, "Do you have a training field within the town? If not I’ll need to leave the town."

"Uhhh, we have an open field but its where we plant our crops." Tony responded, feeling puzzled by the sudden request.

"Nevermind then. I’ll just head out to the forest. Tell Lianna I’m going out for some training and I’ll be back before dusk." Jayce waved dismissively, heading towards the front gates.

All the bearded man could do was just watch in confusion as he left. "I don’t think I’ll ever understand that guy." He muttered, before going on his way.

Jayce walked towards the gates and received curious gazes from the residents, they rarely saw new faces, especially since moving into the forest. He saw a few people cover their noses as he walked past.

’Ah damn it.’ Jayce sighed, he had forgotten that his bath was interrupted Tony and his bozo’s who had kidnapped Lianna. He shook his head in annoyance and hastened his pace towards the gates.

"I need to head into the forest." Jayce said gruffly, however after a moment he added on the word "Please."

The guard was the same one who spoke with a southern drawl accent, who had been told off by Tony for asking too many questions. He looked behind Jayce, noticing that his boss was currently missing.

"I got a few questions first" he grinned, fixing the cowboy hat on his head. He wouldn’t have to answer to anyone without Tony around.

Jayce felt a flash of irritation threaten to overcome him, yet he pulled back his anger. "I’d like to go out the gates... please" He was in the middle of a groundbreaking discovery, and he was still dirty from both the Draconic Panther den and now the fight with Leah.

This would be the man’s last opportunity to relent to his request, otherwise he would be going for a short nap. Jayce did not want to escalate things, but he was really short on patience at the moment. Two pleases were enough in his books.

"Oho. Look what we have here ya’ll. A tough gu— ugh" The man could not finish his words as he suddenly crumpled to the floor after losing consciousness.

Jayce stood next to the unconscious man who began to snore loudly. His dangerous eyes moved to the remaining guards, "Gate. Open. Now"

One of the younger guards was shaking like a leaf in a cyclone, his face was dead pale. All he could do was nod like a pecking chicken before running towards the pulley system. Soon enough, the sound of rattling chains and groaning wood rang out, signaling the opening of the gates.

Still in a bad mood, Jayce walked through the gates before making eye contact with the younger guard. "Thanks..." and with that, he ran off on the path to the river.

The young guard gulped, and he was only able to relax after Jayce was no longer in sight. He let out a sigh of relief before remembering that the cowboy guard was still unconscious.

"How am I going to explain this to Tony..." he said worriedly.

Jayce raced towards the river at breakneck speed, finally calming down after his little outburst. If it were any other day or time, he probably would have entertained the man, however today, he was just not in the mood.

He finally reached the river, wasting no time undressing and jumping in. He kept his clothes on, planning to give them a wash at the same time as himself.

As he removed his shirt, he noticed some black gunk on his skin. "What the hell is that?" He grabbed some between his fingers, feeling an oily yet grainy texture.

Jayce brought it up to his nose to smell it, only to gag dramatically. The stench was unbearable, as if someone had burnt a rotted corpse before dousing the ashes in fish oil.

"Are these impurities?" Jayce thought. After smelling the substance, he had scrubbed every inch of his body, only to find more and more of the black gunk everywhere. He had read stories about this body cleansing, yet he had not expected to be on the receiving end of such a thing.

"It must have something to do with the Mana Circulation that I unlocked." He muttered, feeling a mixture of emotions.

Now that he had fully cleaned himself, it was now time to test his theory regarding the use of mana within the body and possible melee skill creation.