Chef in the Apocalypse

Jayce was sitting on his bed, feeling refreshed after the meal. The group had chatted for a while afterwards, planning out their trip deeper into the large tree.

He was able to get an extensive explanation of Leah’s skills and abilities, which made him feel a lot more confident. Were it not for the dominion that the Dryad held over Nature and Life mana, there was no way that it could have defeated her.

Druids were few and far between, at least from what he could remember in his past life. He remembered the description from Cataclysm, which could have been a reason why it was not that popular.

"Guardians of the natural world, attuned to the spirits of flora and fauna. Druids command nature’s forces, summoning animals, manipulating plants, and wielding the power of life and renewal."

Jayce had known she was powerful, especially since she had taken out so many high level players in his last life. But when she listed her skills, he truly understood just how much he had been underestimating her.

Were it not for his higher level and class tier, paired with the few tricks he played last time, he would have struggled a lot harder to take her down.

Tony on the other hand was a bit of a disappointment, but he was not too worried. He would never let his brand new restaurant chef/server/slave get into any real danger on this trip.

Jayce began his nightly meditation which he had started about two weeks ago. Although he had yet to make any progress in upgrading his Mana Circulation, he continued nonetheless. If anything, it calmed him down before it was time to sleep.

As usual, he began to guide his mana through the meridian channels. Yet this time he saw something softly glowing on his way past.

"Huh?" Jayce was confused for a moment, so he sent some mana to inspect what it was.

The shining light flickered, almost beckoning him to come closer. When he pressed the mana against the source of the light, he felt it sink in a little.

"That’s weird. That’s right around my navel area... Is that my belly button?" Jayce returned his vision outside and pushed with the mana once more, seeing if it had an effect on his body.

It was then that he realized it wasn’t actually his belly button, but a couple of inches lower. Lost in thought for a moment, he decided to use a little more strength to see if he could breach the barrier.

Having had plenty of practice condensing and firing his mana, he effortlessly sent an arrow of mana at the shining light. The mana hit the barrier with great accuracy, shooting through it with ease.

However, the moment it did so all of his mana began to rush towards the breach, scaring the living daylights out of him.

"Oh shit." Jayce watched on as all of the mana that was in his meridians began to pour into the hole, he quickly tried to condense the some mana in order to act like a plug.

The large glob of mana was sucked towards the hole, Jayce held his breath as it inched closer and closer. When it finally sat into place, his mana calmed down for a moment, allowing him to breathe a sigh of relief.

Just when he was about to check his mana reserves in the system, a terrible pain assaulted his body causing him to lose focus. The mana he had condensed quickly broke down and was also sucked into the black hole.

"Am I going to get mana poisoning?"

If all of his mana was to get sucked up, that was definitely a possibility. He could always replenish his mana afterwards, but with no way to plug the hole, it would just get sucked up once again.

As he felt the last remaining drops of his mana fleeing into the hole, he began to despair. "Of course this had to happen right before our trip to the tree." Jayce lamented, cursing his curiosity.

Then there was nothing left. It suddenly felt as if all the strength was drained from him, causing his brain to lose focus. Mana Exhaustion... He had experienced this feeling only once before, early into his first life.

As he took on the mental burden, there was a sense of loss that overcame him. He tried to turn his senses to inside his body, only to find his barren meridians. After all of his hard work refining and purifying his meridians, they were now just as useless as his appendix.

Jayce fell back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling for a while. He had not opened up the system, because he felt like checking would make the situation all the more real. All of his ideals and aspirations seemed to have been sucked up along with his mana.

A few minutes passed in silence and depression as Jayce stared into space.

"It’s not the end yet..." he muttered through gritted teeth. There was no way that he would give up right now, not when he had worked so hard to keep everyone safe.

"I still have plenty of skills that don’t require mana. I’ll just..." Trying to pep himself up, he spoke aloud, yet tears of frustration began to well up in his eyes, threatening to break loose.

"F*CK!"

"You idiot Jayce!"

Balling his hands into fists, blood began to drip from the nails that were cutting into his palms. He felt lost, helpless and a deep sense of self-loathing threaten to overcome him.

Why did he take such a risk? What purpose was there to try and figure out a way to get stronger outside the system? He was already strong, probably stronger than any other human in the world.

He was going to create the Human Alliance, lead everyone to survive and even destroy the Apocalypse in the future. So why did he have to be so... Hasty.

Would he be able to achieve these same things now that he could not use mana? Probably not.

It was hard to think. The mental strain from his Mana Exhaustion brought with it fatigue and a sense of disillusion. With the final remnants of his clarity he spoke softly.

"I’m sorry everyone."