Maids VS Apocalypse

Taking regular breaks wouldn’t allow an athlete to keep running indefinitely. Exhaustion would catch up with them eventually and their bodies would shut down and force them to take proper rest.

Mark remembered Ramsay teaching him that the Mind stat affects the speed at which MP is recovered and so he immediately understood why he would get a debuff.

Simply put, by continuously consuming his Mind Power he exhausted its natural recovery. He was tired to begin with, and without getting a good night of sleep it was only logical that the speed at which he recovers would decrease.

After learning that much one would think he would drop everything and get some sleep, but instead, Mark kept going, and by the time Lara came over the debuff reached -20.

The entire time Mark was hoping for it to be a mistake. Just when he thought he had found the solution to his Gold troubles, another rule revealed itself and forcefully slowed his progress.

Now that he learned it’s possible for the speed at which MP recovers could decrease, he had to reevaluate his plans, but no matter the results, Mark had an inkling that he wouldn’t be able to get past the obstacle, which left him absolutely livid.

’So it was true after all...’ Mark sighed wistfully. ’Passive income really is a myth.’

In a way, it could be said that he had just reached his natural limits. Even if he was a Level 5 with a mind far more powerful than most people, his stats showed that he had a 151 in Mind, not an ∞.

He also arrived at a different understanding of the first rule of Awakened taught to him by the Sergeant. Having a low Mind stat meant a slower MP recovery rate. With consumed MP taking far too long to recover, it wasn’t strange to put greater significance on preserving it.

’Ramsay said most people have 15 in either Mind or Soul when they First Awaken.’ He thought. ’It would take forever to buy anything from the Shop at that rate...’

After running the numbers he learned that most people take no less than three hours to recover 10% of their MP. That made his 20 minutes look ridiculously fast, but considering his need for Gold, he wished it was a little faster.

"Hey kid," Franco’s voice severed his line of thoughts. "We’ve arrived."

Mark glanced at him for a second then shifted his gaze ahead. A couple dozen meters away, a black stain was floating in the air surrounded by a spiderweb of cracks, resembling a hole in an invisible glass wall.

"That was quick," Mark commented.

The terrain caught his attention a moment later. The paved road was mostly gone, replaced by patches of a rough dirt path. Sharp rocks surrounded them from both sides. They looked like massive crystal formations, their color as black as obsidian.

The buildings in the area were what one would expect from a post-apocalyptic city. Despite only a few days having passed since the disaster, they appeared as if decades had gone by since they were abandoned. Some were missing entirely, replaced by gigantic obsidian boulders. Others were covered in the strange mineral like a blanket of black moss.

Heaving a sigh, Mark got out of the truck. Lara was already waiting for him beside the door. Her expression seemed as calm and serene as usual, but he felt that there was a bit of concern in the way she looked at him.

Anything was better than the icy glare from yesterday so he couldn’t help but smile at her. However, that made her look even more troubled.

"Hey, is it really okay for us to come here?" He turned to the other Peace Keepers with a question. "This place used to be a part of the Underworld, right?"

"So?"

He turned around and saw Elya looking up at him, her arms crossed as she frowned. He wanted to ask her not to stand too close to him so he wouldn’t step on her by mistake but dropped the idea.

"Just wanted to know if it’s safe for us to walk around here without some special equipment."

The Great World War had left big parts of the planet inaccessible due to different kinds of contamination, be it nuclear or biological. Mark didn’t think that land from a dimension referred to as hell would be any less dangerous.

"You think we would come here without checking first?" Ramsay’s mocking voice came from the side. He was already lighting a cigarette while leaning on the seat of his bike.

Mark was about to retort when Ben spoke up.

"The area has been cleansed so there is no need to worry."

"I don’t think that’s doable..."

Realizing it was already too late to worry didn’t give Mark any peace of mind. Whatever the case, he had a Rift to seal and so he made his way toward it.

’Would the debuff still get worse if I made sure to sleep regularly?’

As he walked, his mind went back to his Gold problem. Mark still planned on adding a function that automatically converts a certain amount of his MP, though it would take some more experimentation to limit the drawbacks.

’If I lower the converted amount to 5%...’ He arrived at the Rift and began setting the drone case. ’I should add a shortcut to turn it off and on as well...’

His mood only got worse the more he thought about it. No matter what solution he arrived at, it didn’t seem like he would be able to speed up the process without getting a penalty.

"So my only choice would be raising my stats..."

"Ee?"

Heaving another sigh, Mark tapped the panel on the white case to start the repairs. He was about to back away, but the moment he raised his head a bizarre sight met him.

Something was sticking out of the dark veil inside the rift. It was a head covered in what looked like a purple helmet. For a moment Mark mistook it for a man, a really ugly man. The two stared at each other for a couple of seconds when its visage suddenly twisted and it and it bared two rows of jagged teeth at him.

"EEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!"