Chapter 13 "Physical"
Rohan was blown away by Follin's skill as his imagination ran rampant. He was already imaging an army of beasts created by Follin to do his bidding, or even solving small problems within the blink eye. 'Any minor inconvenience could disappear… no knife? create one… no rope? another one… need beds, chairs, any item he could think of would appear. Maybe even guns… what about something bigger, like planes, helicopters, cars, even gold would work.' Being drowned in his thoughts Rohan kept imagining more and more 'A house would work, or maybe an RV that could help us get out of the city, even a boat on the eastern river can be possible… but wait there should be a limit, no there is a limit. His mana expenditure will be crazy anytime he uses it or is there another downside' thinking to himself Rohan was going through the options as he asked "Follin, is there any downside to your skill, like the mana cost or size limited?"
Follin looked up from the drawn map at Rohan "No the mana skill isn't particularly expensive, especially with good management it's very cheap. There is also no size limit that I have found, I can keep on giving form and summoning more. Why do you ask?"
"Well, what did you create then? Or can't you use it?" Rohan started asking as he felt that Follin was hiding something.
"No you are looking at the right now, or have been the whole time you were inside this room" he responded without any emotion.
"But there isn't anything crazy in this room? Just the normal chairs, table and lots of paper....... You created all this paper? And used it for maps, monster lists, drawings and what more? Or can you only create paper?" Asking disappointingly he looked at Follin.
"No, I can also create more than just paper, I can also create pens to draw on the paper, which allows for anything I want."
'sigh' Rohan internally went silent and dropped his head. He didn't have his expectations this hardly crushed in a long time. "So you were lying about your power?"
"No I never lied and will never lie, I simply stated the facts, which were that I can create anything I can imagine."
Correcting him Rohan answered "on paper you can indeed create anything if that is what you meant. But it would have been nice to say that earlier."
Folling kept his silence so Rohan continued. "Could you show me the current monster list you made? You are calling the monsters right?"
Getting up from the table Follin took out a book from the shelf behind him, there weren't that many in there and the book was rather small sized. "Here, take your time, it might miss some entries and I only wrote it two days ago." Taking the book Rohan sat down at the table and looked at the book.
It was thin simple bound book with the title 'Anthropomorphic and Therianthrope Like Creatures'. The names was better than calling them plain 'monster', he had asked Follin what the terms meant and got a very short answer back "It is defined in the book".
Anthropomorphic: Animals that are similar to the human appearance, character, and behavior but have no human bodily parts.
Therianthrope: Animals that can be similar to human appearance, character, and behavior due to having a partial human body.
Theriomorphic: A being that resembles and animal shape, character and behavior. Can be a combination of animals.
The book had a small list on the hybrid animals, it included Centaur, Satyr, Faun, Minotaur, Arachnoids, Gorgon, Pheres (Mountain spirits), Griffin, Harpies and a category for Chimera's which there were still many names to be added to but had a general description of the theriomorphic animal. Some included goat legs and horns and a lions head, or the human body with a goat or lions head. It even talked of a combination from spiders and gorilla's.
Rohan took his time to look at the details of some of these animals, it sometimes had a small drawing with them for the satyr and centaur, but most only had the name, what animal parts they had and if there any remarks. Many species also had mentions of their weak points, but also their strengths and areas that frequently saw these animals pass through.
There was no danger rating or monster ranking as Follin said 'Too little data and too little time'.
Satisfied with the information Rohan put the book away. "Follin you said something about a sleeping place and a job for me? But shouldn't the focus be on getting out of the city?"
"Yes and no, you get a sleeping spot and job, but we can't focus on getting out of the city yet. We know a bit on what is happening inside the city but have yet to receive any information from outside. That's why we are so hesitant. The focus we have now is to discover more survivors and the state of the rest of Duran, where everyone disappeared to and what the status is outside the city."
Follin turned away from the maps and books and looked at Rohan "You will join an expedition team in a couple of days, we have currently 3 running out and about that consist of 6 members, the other people at the shelter either keep watch, do some tasks or scout close by. We don't have the capacity for large scale stuff as you would have expected. You can choose any free bed in the eastern sleeping room. Make yourself useful by training yourself or your skill, someone will pick you up in 3 days." Taking a breath Follin asked "Questions?"
"Yes a few" I responded "Is there any contact with other shelters, did everyone also level up and increase their mana and can I know some skills from other people? And lastly what do you mean training my skill?"
"Well first, we are trying to get into contact with other shelter but have not managed to successfully do it, although we know there are more survivors out in the shelters. That is what one expedition team is focusing on. On a side note, you haven't even asked where all the other people of Duran disappeared to, we have some minor clues, but we know for certain that they haven't died, or at least most didn't. Then secondly, yes most people have leveled up, actually everyone had after encountering monsters. I am currently level 11, stats I won't bore you with it as it is the same for everyone, at least currently it is." Follin continued with a heavy sigh, the first sign of some emotion on him since he started talking.
"We know of 2 methods to level up, but are unsure of the limits or if the monsters can level up as well. The one you know as well is the monster killing, filling your experience up to the limit which will the increase your mana limit and level. The other method we know of is to kill other humans, which is the same as monster killing. Before you ask how we found out, well accidents can happen and lets leave it at that. That's all we know for now."
Rohan stood there not knowing what to say on Follin's info as he continued.
"Then lastly… the training you asked, well you can practice swinging a sword as eventually the bullets from guns will run out or as I said, train your skill. Every skill is given automatically and you gain basic understanding of it after absorbing the Core. But… the skill can be flexible and you can deepen or improve the functionality of it. Look at my skill, I started with a single piece of paper and a pen, although the pen I made has always been the same. I can now produce a small booklet due to change something with mana or my thoughts."
Follin sounded a little bit confused as he tried to explain it.
"What happened over time was that I produced such a large amount of single sheets of paper, that I got a feeling for it. Building on that feeling I started getting a hang of it, I could manage to produce multiple sheets per time, allowing more efficient mana usage. And eventually I got to this point" Follin picked up a the small book with monster entries "were I could make small books. Although I am far from finding a limit, it is very time consuming, as you see all the shelves I filled with paper how long it took me to get to this point." Rohan saw a small spark of pride in Follin's face as he showed all the effort he had put into creating paper.
Rohan found it a commendable effort, although the question remained how useful it would become.
Follin became quiet again as his explanation ended.
"I agree that I haven't really thought much on the disappearing citizens, but I had a feeling that most indeed did not die as I didn't see such horrific scenes happening anywhere in the city. Then indeed the questions remains, where they disappeared to."
Rohan told him, although it was more of an excuse for himself, as he couldn't remember why he hadn't thought about it at all and had for some reason forgotten about it for most of the time. For the first time in more than a week he sat down and a rest.