John sat on the roof of a crumbling three-story office building, legs dangling over the edge, and opened his Inventory menu.

Four new tabs awaited him. Armoury. Crafting. Alchemy. Enchanting. He'd dropped 180,000 Aura to unlock them, gambling that the ability to equip and empower the others would be worth the cost. Now he needed to see if that gamble would pay off.

His wings were still out, black membrane stretched taut against the wind. Technically, there was no reason to have them out right now, but he was getting used to their weight on his back, the way they shifted with each breath.

John focused on the Armoury tab and willed it open.

The haptic buzz thrummed through his skull as information flooded in. His vision didn't change. There were no floating windows, no holographic displays. Just knowledge, injected directly into his brain, organised and catalogued by some mechanism he didn't understand and probably never would.

The menu presented him with a list. Mostly things he'd been expecting, but one entry caught his eye:

Mirrormind Armour Set Quality: Exceptional Condition: 43 Power: 847 Properties: Stealth Enhancement, Physical Resistance, Mana Conductivity Damage: Multiple punctures, structural compromise, severe denting Upgrades Repair: 12,400 Aura

John stared at the entry in bafflement for a moment before memory cut in and a grimace tugged at his lips.

There were only two pieces of armour he could think of ever adding to his Inventory. One was the ninja armour Doug had showed him when he first met back up with the team back at the community centre, and the other was Marian's. The illusionist woman who'd killed Claire and Curtis. Who he'd killed without realising it, punching and kicking her in his blind fury when he'd caught her torturing the little girl for the sins of her father.

He'd forgotten it was in his Inventory. When he'd picked up her body, the Human Corpse, it had automatically come with, and he hadn't paid any further attention to it. Hadn't wanted to think about it at all, if he was honest. Taking it from her would have felt like a violation, in a weird way, like he'd killed her for the loot. He knew he hadn't, but the brain worked in strange ways, sometimes.

The armour was 'exceptional' quality, apparently, though he didn't know what that meant and how it compared to other sets of armour. Power rating in the high hundreds. Again, he didn't know what that meant yet. Properties that would make whoever wore it significantly harder to kill; if nothing else, Physical Resistance sounded useful. And it was damaged, but not beyond repair. 12,400 Aura would've seemed steep a little while ago. Not so much anymore.

John moved to the next entry.

Reaper's Scythe Quality: Superior Condition: 89 Power: 623 Properties: Cutting Enhancement, Reach Extension, Soul Damage Damage: Minor edge wear, handle stress fractures Upgrade Repair: 3,440 Aura

He'd been using the scythe for a little while now, and couldn't recall whether he'd noticed any special effects from it, like the ones listed in the 'Properties' bit. The trouble in that regard was he hadn't actually used any mundane weapons since the golf clubs he'd wielded at the very start of the apocalypse, and certainly hadn't tried out a regular old scythe to compare it to.

For all he knew, Cutting Enhancement and Soul Damage had been a massive boon to him, and he'd never noticed. Something to test out, he supposed.

Nightfall Katana Quality: Masterwork Condition: 76 Power: 1,034 Properties: Sharpness Enhancement, Durability, Shadow Affinity Damage: Stress fractures throughout blade, pommel loosening, guard misalignment Upgrade Repair: 890 Aura

Curtis' sword. A masterwork, apparently. He'd never learned where the man had gotten it from, but he assumed it had come from looting some of his victims, who themselves would have either looted it from other survivors, or got it from a portal world themselves. Or, indeed, maybe they'd possessed something like this new menu from the beginning and had upgraded it themselves.

Interestingly, there was no mention of the red beam he'd seen Curtis use. The first time John had laid eyes on the man had been on his team's approach to Watford, where they'd witnessed Curtis fly up high above the town and unleash a red energy attack, slashing through the air following the swing of his blade. He'd figured that had been Curtis' own ability, but kind of hoped it might a trait of the sword he hadn't figured out how to use.

Oh well, John thought with a sigh. I'm sure I could replicate something similar, if I really wanted.

He moved on, checking the rest of the list. There was lots of miscellaneous knives and bats and general crap that could count as weapons but weren't necessarily meant for the purpose, then the throwing knives, shuriken,, and a grappling hook they'd looted from 'Mikey', the ambushing Ninja that Jade had inadvertently killed while they were separated, John still trapped in the school portal world, being chased around by the red-souled Headmaster mantis. All catalogued with the same level of detail. Quality ratings. Condition percentages. Properties he'd never known existed.

The armour was there too—the Shadowweave Armour Set—but it was so damaged that it refused to show the other properties without repair, and John didn't care enough to spend the 41,000 Aura it was demanding.

John focused on the upgrade options for the scythe, willing it to expand.

Weight Reduction I: 400 Aura

Durability Reinforcement I: 400 Aura

Sharpness Enhancement II: 2,000 Aura

Reach Extension II: 2,000 Aura

Curse Wound I: 1,500 Aura

Life Drain I: 1,500 Aura

Blade Projection I: 4,000 Aura

Spectral Edge I: 4,000 Aura

Soul Damage II: 8,000 Aura

Reaper's Harvest I: 10,000 Aura

Interesting, he thought. The points have been pretty uniform up until now, but these are a bit… all over the place? Blade Projection, Spectral Edge, and Reaper's Harvest are all level 1, but their cost is different. And Durability Reinforcement costs practically nothing in comparison… So they're tiers of ability, or something? Ostensibly the same level, but inherently different quality?

As usual, the System had no interest in explaining how it all worked, only giving him the names of abilities and letting him figure it out for himself. John let out a sigh.

Pretty much everything he'd unlocked so far had doubled in price with each upgrade, so he assumed Sharpness Enhancement and Reach Extension had started at 1,000, and Soul Damage had started at 4,000, putting it on the same tier as Blade Projection, Spectral Edge, and Soul Damage.

Thus, he mentally categorised Durability at the lowest tier, D; Sharpness and Reach next at C; Curse Wound and Life Drain as B; Blade Projection, Spectral Edge, and Soul Damage as A; and Reaper's Harvest on its own as S.

In other words:

D-Tier at 400. Basic stuff related to the physical qualities of the weapon, I guess.

C-tier starts at 1000. Still kinda basic, but more related to how the weapon wields.

B-tier starts at 1500. In this case, the effect the weapon has.

A-tier starts at 4000. Special abilities. Magic shit.

S-tier starts at 10000. Magic shit, but better, presumably? Reaper's Harvest makes me think of harvesting souls, and that could be useful.

The same applied to every weapon and armour in his possession. Ten potential modifications, two each of D, C, and B-tier, then three A-tier choices and one S-tier, and all of them were… pretty much thematically appropriate for whatever the piece of equipment was?

Mirian's armour, for example, boasted a bunch of illusionary upgrade paths, like Mirage and Chameleon Camouflage, while the Nightfall Katana he got from Curtis had Shadow Slash and Midnight Murder, whatever that actually meant.

For the sake of experimentation and confirming how everything worked, John bought one option from every tier on the scythe.

Weight Reduction I -> II: 400 Aura

Sharpness Enhancement II -> III: 2,000 Aura

Life Drain I -> II: 1,500 Aura

Blade Projection I -> II: 4,000 Aura

Reaper's Harvest I -> II: 10,000 Aura

John couldn't help smiling grimly to himself as he realised he'd just spent 17,900 Aura, just like that, on experimentation. The John of just a few days ago would've been horrified by the sight. He could only shrug, rising to his feet to test out the scythe after confirming that all the things he'd upgraded now cost double for their next upgrade.

The effect of weight reduction were immediately obvious the moment the scythe materialised in his grip. It was notably lighter. Duh.

Sharpness was harder to test. Examining the blade, he wasn't sure if he was just imagining that its edge was glinting brighter. Life Drain had the same issue. There weren't any monsters nearby, funnily enough. He wondered if the System was keeping them away from him after his previous display.

Regardless, he found he was able to test Blade Projection easily enough; all he had to do was swing the blade and there was a sort of instinctual buzz in the back of his mind, like his psychic finger was hovering over a confirmation button. Hitting it mid-swing created a ghostly after-image on the scythe's curved blade, projecting it further outward as the name implied. Potentially useful, if it worked for everyone else as easily as it did for him.

+200 Aura

Reaper's Harvest was both easy to test and not. Easy, in that just thinking about the special property brought up another number counter above his regular Soul one, reading 0. Empty.

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The part that wasn't easy to test was how he got that number to go up, since, as aforementioned, there were no monsters nearby, according to Mana Sense. He felt safe in assuming that killing a monster with the scythe would raise that number, and that the souls stored in the scythe would be used for unknown means, but he still made a mental note to confirm it at some point. Shouldn't be too hard to track down a blue to easily kill.

John pulled back from the specifics and examined the broader menu structure. The only other thing of note was a crafting option, which he felt stepped on the actual Crafting menu's toes a bit, but he wasn't going to complain.

Weapon Crafting

Reaper's Scythe (1)

Nightfall Katana (1)

Shadowfang Shuriken (8)

Nightpiercer Kunai (12)

Widow's Kiss Grapple (1)

Shadowweave Armour fragments (9)

No explanation, as usual. From the fact it was listing all the 'named' weapons available to him, he assumed it would let him fuse them together to create weapons with new effects, much like his Combine ability did with Skills and Spells.

He selected the Shadowfang Shuriken and the Shadowweave Armour fragments, neither of which he particularly cared about losing. The shuriken would probably be decent enough, but he hadn't used them even once so far, and the armour fragments had also been sitting in his inventory doing nothing. If he broke something trying to work out how this menu functioned, better these than his actual weapons.

-1000 Aura

Hm. Much less than the Spell/Skill Combine. Is that the fixed price, or is it just because these are low quality weapons and armour?

The menus shifted a bit, and one Shadow Shuriken appeared in his Inventory. John pulled it from his inventory to examine it. The weapon materialised in his hand, looking almost identical to the original Shadowfang design, four-pointed, sharp, balanced for throwing. But when he focused on it, information filtered into his mind the same way his class abilities did.

Curious, he threw the shuriken, leaning on the Ninja Skill he'd picked up what felt like a lifetime ago. It curved through the air, and a spark appeared in the back of his mind. When he activated it, the shuriken turned to darkness, going straight through the wall he'd aimed for.

+200 Aura

Useful. Very useful. One could throw these through walls, through shields, through armor. The applications were obvious. It'd maybe be a bit tricky to get the timing down, but he figured it'd be worth learning.

More importantly, he understood now what the could do. It let him create unique variations of equipment, fuse properties together, build weapons tailored to specific purposes. The possibilities stretched out in his mind, dozens of potential combinations, hundreds of different configurations.

But he decided to leave his scythe and his katana for now. He'd learned this lesson already. Back when he'd first started Combining his Spells, he'd lost access to abilities he'd found useful, Soul Arrow, for example, vanishing into Ultimate Shot.

Each combination had given him something more powerful, but it had also taken away options. Reduced his versatility a bit in exchange for raw strength. Archmage had hopefully offset that problem, but he wasn't sure something similar would come along to make up for any disappointing weapon fusions.

The scythe and katana worked. They served different purposes, gave him flexibility in combat. Fusing them might create something stronger, but it would leave him with only one weapon. One approach. And he'd already paid the price for that kind of thinking.

The Armoury was valuable for experimentation, for creating specialized equipment when he needed it. But his main weapons? Those could stay as they were.

He stared at the wall the shuriken had just passed through for a moment.

I'll go find that in a minute.

He moved on to the Crafting menu.

The interface was similar to Armoury, but broader. Where Armoury dealt specifically with implements of violence and protection, Crafting handled everything else.

The list of items in his Inventory appeared, each one now annotated with new information.

Cotton Shirt Repair: 600 Aura Upgrade

Denim Jeans Repair: 200 Aura Upgrade

Running Shoes Condition: Good Upgrade

Backpack Condition: Satisfactory Upgrade

And on. Every piece of clothing, every tool, every random object he'd shoved into his Inventory was now a potential project. He could repair them. Upgrade them. Modify them to suit specific needs.

John selected the backpack, curious what the upgrade options looked like for something so mundane.

Capacity Enhancement I: 400 Aura

Durability Reinforcement I: 400 Aura

Weight Reduction I: 1,000 Aura

Organisation Matrix I: 1,000 Aura

Thermal Regulation I: 1,500 Aura

Hydration System I: 1,500 Aura

Adaptive Camouflage I: 4,000 Aura

Reagent Preservation Field I: 4,000 Aura

Mana-Dampening Weave I: 4,000 Aura

Spatial Expansion I: 10,000 Aura

John leaned back, processing. The options were interesting, seemingly following the same scheme as Armoury, five distinct tiers with different costs. Looking at stuff like Spatial Expansion, he imagined creating a Bag of Holding of sorts, allowing one of his comrades to essentially have an Inventory of their own. Thermal Regulation and a Hydration System seemed promising in survival terms, too.

But Reagent Preservation Field and Mana-Dampening Weave were what really caught his eye, here. The former because it implied there were magical reagents that could decay over time, and the latter because it implied there were objects that could emit mana, and dampening that effect was considered A-tier useful by the System.

He filed that away for later consideration and switched over to the Alchemy menu. The first screen he saw was this:

Reagents Menu

Formulas Menu

Refinement Menu

First, he checked reagents.

Infernal Essence x1

Beast Blood Pellet x4

Monster Core x1

Prismatic Shell x4

Beast Blood Bandages x3

Crystal-Clear Fangs x1

Eldritch Ooze x7

Evil Eyes x2

Gigantula Venom x3

Beast Bladder x2

Heart of Death x1

Arcane Arteries x4

John blinked. He had reagents. Multiple types, multiple quantities.

Every time he'd killed a monster and pulled its corpse into his Inventory before it could decay, the System had been breaking it down, extracting useful components. He hadn't thought much of them until now, though he had assumed there'd be some use for them at the time. He was glad he'd kept them.

Next, he examined the list of formulas. It was fairly extensive.

Healing Salve: 400 Aura (Beast Blood Pellet x1, Beast Blood Bandages x1)

Stamina Pill: 400 Aura (Beast Blood Pellet x1, Beast Bladder x1)

Venom Toxin: 400 Aura (Gigantula Venom x1, Eldritch Ooze x1)

Glimmering Polish: 400 Aura (Prismatic Shell x1, Eldritch Ooze x1)

Potion of Minor Arcana: 1,000 Aura (Beast Blood Pellet x1, Arcane Arteries x1, Eldritch Ooze x1)

Barrierskin Potion: 1,000 Aura (Prismatic Shell x1, Beast Blood Pellet x1, Eldritch Ooze x1)

Adrenal Pill: 1,000 Aura (Beast Blood Pellet x1, Beast Bladder x1, Gigantula Venom x1)

Troll-Blood Salve: 1,000 Aura (Beast Blood Bandages x2, Eldritch Ooze x1)

Elixir of the Seer: 1,500 Aura (Arcane Arteries x1, Eldritch Ooze x1, Evil Eyes x1, Beast Blood Pellet x1)

Elixir of the Unburdened: 1,500 Aura (Prismatic Shell x2, Beast Bladder x1, Arcane Arteries x1)

Paralytic Toxin: 1,500 Aura (Gigantula Venom x1, Eldritch Ooze x1, Evil Eyes x1, Crystal-Clear Fangs x1)

Hunter's Draught: 1,500 Aura (Arcane Arteries x1, Beast Blood Bandages x1, Eldritch Ooze x2)

Elixir of the Behemoth: 4,000 Aura (Monster Core x1, Arcane Arteries x1, Beast Blood Pellet x1, Beast Bladder x1, Eldritch Ooze x1)

Draught of Living Terror: 4,000 Aura (Infernal Essence x1, Gigantula Venom x1, Evil Eyes x1, Eldritch Ooze x2)

Prismatic Ward Potion: 4,000 Aura (Prismatic Shell x1, Arcane Arteries x1, Crystal-Clear Fangs x1, Eldritch Ooze x1, Beast Blood Pellet x1)

Elixir of the One-Time King: 10,000 Aura (Heart of Death x1, Monster Core x1, Infernal Essence x1, Crystal-Clear Fangs x1, Evil Eyes x1, Arcane Arteries x1, Prismatic Shell x1)

Again, it appeared to follow the tier scheme, if in a slightly different manner. Here, as far as he could tell, the cost was based on how many reagents needed to be combined to create the elixir or potion.

Wanting to see how it worked, he went for the simplest option on the menu: a healing salve.

-400 Aura

The mana sphere embedded in his core made itself known to him for the first time in a very long time. Technically, it was constantly active, fuelling his Spells and providing the energy that went into his level ups, but he'd gotten so used to it that he barely noticed its existence, in the same way that you typically don't notice the activity of your heart until it starts pounding.

This wasn't exactly equivalent to his heart pounding, but it was a similar kind of discomfort. It pulsed twice, and two smaller spheres appeared within it. They spun around each other for a moment, their momentum bringing them closer and closer, until they started overlapping. In no time at all, there was only one sphere, and it faded away soon after.

John had to swap over to his main Inventory screen to track down the salve. Like everything else, it was listed only with its name and weight, so he summoned it. A small glass vial the size of his pinky appeared in his hadn with no fanfare. It was pea green, viscous, and distinctly unimpressive.

Disappointment didn't get long to worm its way in to his heart, because checking the Refinement menu showed him that he wouldn't be stuck with only low-grade potions when it came to important stuff like healing salves.

Healing Salve I -> II: 800 Aura

Just like the other menus, then.

He suspected it would go up to Level 10—or X, in this case—for a cost of… 800+1600+3200+6400+12800+25600+51200+102400+204800=… Uh, whatever. It will cost a hell of a lot to get a potion that strong, and, if all my other stuff is anything to go by, it'll be relly strong at that point.

More than Aura, he suspected the bottleneck was going to be acquiring more reagents. Which meant killing monsters in ways that left bodies intact. Which meant not vaporising them with Draconic Inferno or any of his other highly destructive spells.

He'd have to be more selective, precise. Target monsters with valuable components and eliminate them with surgical strikes that preserved the corpse. Which required identifying monsters with valuable components in the first place.

And hell, there was nothing saying he had to be the one doing the harvesting in this case. He already knew there was an option to craft things with reagent preservation properties, so there was always the option of recruiting people to go hunting materials for him.

John found himself dreaming of outfitting a small army of lackeys to farm mats for him, which he'd then invest into forming an elite party that would take up the job of destroying portal worlds.

Strangely enamoured by the prospect, John moved on to the last menu. Enchanting. What he found there briefly confused him.

Enchanting

Level 0 Spells

Level 1 Spells

Level 2 Spells

Level 3 Spells

Level 4 Spells

Level 5 Spells

Level 6 Spells

Level 7 Spells

Level 8 Spells

Level 9 Spells

Level 10 Spells

Level 0 Skills

Level 1 Skills

Level 2 Skills

Level 3 Skills

Level 4 Skills

Level 5 Skills

Level 6 Skills

Level 7 Skills

Level 8 Skills

Level 9 Skills

Level 10 Skills

The menu seemed to list out every Spell and Skill he'd ever been offered, along with the Aura it required to unlock them. None of them were Combined, and it didn't seem to matter if he'd previously purchased them or not. Everything was there, from Level 0 Mana Sense for 200 Aura to Level 9 Karmic Retribution for 128,000 Aura.

Huh.

John had a suspicion. With a feeling halfway between trepidation and anticipation, he sought out Level 1 Fireball and 'selected' it, for lack of a better term. His menu immediately expanded, showing his entire Inventory on one side of his mind's eye's vision, and the Spell on the other, alongside an empty 'slot' simply labelled Reagent.

Swallowing, he sought out something simple that could double as a weapon. He didn't know where or when he'd picked up a rounders bat, but it seemed perfect for the job.

500 Aura and one less Eldritch Ooze later, he had a Fire Bat in his Inventory. And in the Enchanting menu, it appeared at the bottom of the screen below the slashed out Level 10 Spells option.

It read:

Upgrade Fire Bat Level 1 -> Level 2: 1000 Aura

Looking back at Level 1 Spells, Fireball was now listed at a cost of 1000 Aura, while still remaining at Level 1. Presumably, it would keep doubling in price every time he used it to Enchant an item.

John let out a slow breath. His heart rate had picked up, and he set Biomancy to calming it back down. Getting all excited here served no purpose.

Even if he'd just unlocked a potential game-changer. Enchanting feels like it should've cost more than 75,000, but like fuck am I ever gonna complain.

Dismissing his scythe back to the Inventory, he summoned the Fire Bat to his hand with a thought. It looked no different to an average rounders bat, but it was oddly warm to the touch, and there was a spark that travelled from the point of contact all the way to his brain. Knowledge wormed its way into his mind, bringing with it that same haptic buzz that accompanied learning a new Spell.

Swinging the bat at the empty air caused a ball of fire the size of, well, a rounders ball to appear, rocketing off the wood like it had been pitched at him, and he'd struck it back with perfect contact. It even came with that wooden thunk sound of hitting a ball sweetly. It brought him back to his primary school days, though he didn't think he'd ever managed to hit the ball at all during those times, let alone so cleanly.

The fireball rocketed away, crashing into a house across the street from where he stood.

If Enchanted items like this could be used by anyone…

"Okay," John murmured to himself. "I think we're in business."

+200 Aura

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