Return of the last survivor
Chapter 47: First battle

A shadow from the left leapt towards Max, who was prepared and injected some of his mana into his make-shift shield. Although Merlin did not use any runes to create the shield, he used mana channels, which was used in tandem with runes to form magic tools, like puppets, and weapons.

Rushing towards it, max crashed the mana infused shield straight into the shadow. With a muffled thud, the momentum Max was running with was transferred to the shadow, which was thrown back slightly, while Max stood his ground, like an immovable mountain.

Since it had fallen to the ground and was no longer moving, Jack could finally see its shape. Just as he noticed that it was a huge black panther, almost double the size that is found naturally, Jack launched the counter attack.

Although Jack could not use the system yet, he was a pre-awakened, and had also greatly increase his mana using the fire-mage law set. Normal people like Merlin could only meditate after reaching Tier 1, since the quality of their mana was too low. However, Jack could meditate since his mana was not created by the system, but by his own body.

By now, his mana pool was about the same as Merlin when he was at the peak of Level 5, before he evolved to Tier 1.

With this amount of mana, he could cast basic Tier 0 spells. Therefore, he put all his effort into forming his mana. After meditating using the fire mage law set, all his mana had already begun to increase in temperature. This made his ability to convert mana into fire much easier. This was the sign that he had fully comprehended and absorbed the first method of the mage law set. And he had already begun the second method. This was a liberty only given to pre-awakened. They were not restricted by Tiers when meditating on methods of law sets.

Once he had fully comprehended and absorbed all the methods, his mana would turn to fire, and would allow him to begin comprehending the law of fire, completely by-passing the Tier limits on players for comprehending the laws.

Jack condensed a Tier 0 fireball. However, he did not let it go, but instead continued to feed it more mana, and increase its size. This was the simple task of overloading a spell, which would allow it to display the might of a spell 1 Tier above it, but would also make it incredibly unstable. Even the faintest mana interference of a Tier 0 spell could disrupt an overloaded Tier 5 spell. Now for an overloaded Tier 0 spell, even a single wisp of mana from either Merlin or Max could cause it to explode onto Jack.

But he did not care and continued to increase the size of the fire-ball. Once it was the size of beach ball, he threw it towards the black panther lying on the floor. The collision with Max's shield had injured its neck, which greatly reduced its mobility.

Putting all its might in its legs, the panther tried moving out of the way, however, Jack had expected this and had moved the fireball to the left.

With a resounding crash, the fireball exploded the black panther to pieces. With a deep sigh, Both Max and Jack relaxed after defeating their first opponent in the dungeon.

"You idiots! Didn't I tell you that there were two enemies? What would happen if I wasn't there and this guy ambushed you?"

Suddenly, Merlin figure came out of the shadows, dragon a heavily mutilated corpse with him. It was so badly beat up that even its shape was unrecognisable.

Max and Jack were both petrified at the thought of a beast attacking the from behind. Even though they were prepared for this one, it was not easy in any way to kill it. Max's hands were left numb after the clash with the beast, and Jack had already used up 1/4th of his mana trying to display the power of a Tier 1 spell. By simply looking at the thick skin and fur the beast had Jack had known that Tier 0 spells would not work on it effectively, and he would have to spam then continuously to be able to penetrate its defences. That would most definitely cost him around half of his mana, and therefore he had made the decision to overload the spell, using the method Merlin had taught him.

But now, they had completely forgotten about the second one. Imagining their untimely endings, the colour from both people drained and their expressions sank.

Seeing the pale faces of both Max and Jack, Merlin nodded in the satisfaction that his message got through to them.

"It's fine. At least us understood that. Now mark my words. There are a few rules u must follow in the Apocalypse… The first is to never-ever let your guard down, even against other humans. The second for Jack is to remember that mana is the only reason u can stay alive in the Apocalypse, and for Max is that his body is the only reason you will be able to survive. Depending on others is never the correct decision.

You should even be on guard with each other to an extent that does not impede your co-operation. Although for now, you guys can work together, there may come a time where I will or can no longer control your souls. At that point, you must remember to stay on guard with anything ang everything.

Anyway, let’’s get moving. I want to complete this dungeon before the tutorial gets over, which leaves s about 5 hours to complete the dungeon. Let's go!"