Group-Yukkuri
You all tell Jacob your weapon preferences while following him out of the rookie section and into another tunnel, which opens into a large room with a large anvil in the center and all varieties of weapons on the walls. A pile of monster parts lies in one corner, and a wiry-looking blonde man who can't be a day over 20 is measuring them and separating them into smaller piles. Upon noticing you all, he picks himself up and dusts himself off before speaking.
"Yo Jake, I'm kinda in the middle of something here, so just give me the orders and I'll introduce myself tomorrow morning. Your siphon's up on the top left rack like it always is."
Jacob calls out orders while retrieving his siphon; a great rust-colored canon about 5-feet long in the shape of a wolf's head.
"Alright, we need a Pug for the guy with the red hat, an Arc for the short pale fellow, a Sickle for the sneaky looking one, and a Mosca for the lady. The last guy says that he's got some sort of special order waiting for him."
"Oh, I was wondering who that was going to be for. It was a hell of a lot of fun putting it together. Anyways..."
The man heads to the wall and grabs a large bone scimitar reinforced with a metal brace, which he carries over to Urist.
"Here's the Sickle. It's pretty basic as far as slicers go, but it's damned effective at what it does. It's sharp enough to cut through most things, but if you want that bit of extra oomph, then just flip this switch on the handle and it'll use mana to leave more of a mark. You probably learned this at the academy, but you don't want to get too low on mana. There's an alarm built in to warn you if you're running out though, so just be mindful of that and you'll be fine. Now, let's see what else I can find here... Aha, the Mosca!"
The man heads to the wall again and this time picks up a massive metal war-hammer, the muscles in his arms swelling visibly as he lifts it and carries it to Sofia.
"I know it looks like it weighs a ton, but don't worry to much about it. The mana in it is released in small amounts through the handle to increase the wielder's physical strength, so that you can swing it around like a toy. It's pretty easy to use too; just swing it at a monster until it stumbles, and than stab it with the pointy bit on the bottom to extract the mana. And remember, as tempting as it is to store up a lot of mana and become absurdly strong, you don't want it to overload. If anything weird starts happening to the weapon, that's a good sign that you should inject some of your mana into an ally's weapon before things get bad. Now, where'd I put the Pug?"
This time the man heads to a crate near the center of the room and opens it, pulling out a pair of huge spiked metal fists, each one slightly larger than a watermelon. He hands these to Red.
"Alright, these here are the Pugs. They're technically reapers, so don't worry about being strong enough to wield them, but they're a little bit different than normal reapers. You see, because both gloves are spiked, they absorb mana on every single blow that you land, which lets you charge up really fast. Unfortunately, their mana tank is smaller than that of an average reaper, so you'll have to give a lot of mana to your allies to avoid a meltdown. Fortunately, the Arc's one hell of a mana-guzzler. Speaking of which..."
The man heads back to the wall racks and pulls down a sleek and steely gun nearly seven feet long, which he hands to Kyle.
"Here's the Arc. It's a little bit unwieldy, I know, but the long barrel means that it packs a hell of a punch, even at huge distances. Anyways, like most other blasters, it converts mana into bullets of energy in order to attack from afar. The nifty thing about the Arc though is its special shot, which is capable of piercing through both enemies and terrain to strike things on the other side, which is great for when you're fighting a monster that's trying to use cover. As for its normal bullets, the Arc can fire either impact shots, which can shatter bones and cause concussions, piercing shots, which are similar to conventional bullets but bigger and made out of energy, and freezing shots, which are very effective against some types of monsters. You can change the shot type by turning this little dial on the stock here, and if you want to fire the special shot, you push the dial in like a button. Finally, if it starts to beep, that's the built-in alarm telling you that you need to refill on mana. If you keep firing when you're low on mana, than it'll start draining your strength to keep operating, which is the last thing you want when you're fighting a monster. Well, it looks like that's everything. Wait, no! There's still one more!"
Excitedly, the man walks over to the anvil and opens a compartment near the base, from which he withdraws a bone and metal blade similar to Urist's Sickle, but with sharpened monster fangs all along the cutting edge. He examines this carefully for a moment before handing it to Harvey.
"I know that I've said it already, but man, this was fun to put together. It's just like the Sickle, but the teeth on it are meant to tap into the mana of monsters in order to keep it fueled. Now, the design's almost perfect, but there's one small flaw where mana occasionally leaks out of the teeth instead of being absorbed through them. I've got no idea why this happens, but there's no warning for it, so you'll have to be extra careful. Anyways, it's just like the Sickle in that you can flip this switch to change between releasing and absorbing mana. I might be able to work out the flaws in it given the time, but it needs to be field tested a few times first. Speaking of which, when you get back, could you tell me how well it worked?"
As the man speaks, the pile of monster parts he was measuring shifts uneasily, and a high-pitched mewling sound begins to come from it.
"Oh, there's my cue to berate you all for wasting my precious time and get back to work. Now, head on upstairs and get me some new parts to work with, will you?"
"Alright then, let's get going while the going's good."
Jacob seems to have calmed down a bit, but he's obviously still worried. You follow him back to the Node and up the central staircase to the surface with your new weapons. When you reach the top and step outside, you can see that the sun has just slipped past the horizon, and the moon is starting to rise over a nearby hill. As he scans the area, Jacob hands each one of you a watch, a compass, and a flare gun.
"Alright, our best bet is to split up to cover more ground, so we'll have to communicate with these. A green flare means you've found Yukkuri, and a red flare means that you need backup from the rest of the squad. I'm going to be heading due north, so you five should spread out in other directions so that we don't miss her. Finally, as much as it pains me to say this, we'll have to back if we don't find her in a hour, since most monsters are more active at night. Now, unless anyone has any urgent questions, let's move out!"
Yukkuri
You think for a moment, remembering how back at the academy someone mentioned that monster materials are the only things able to resist the corrosive effects of mana. Well, the only real way to get monster parts is by killing monsters, which makes retrieving them a bit of a catch 22 for you right now. Still, your blade should be able to land a few hits before it melts away, so if you can find something relatively small and kill it quickly, then you might be able to keep your weapon intact. You look out over the hill again, this time keeping a very careful eye out for anything moving about on the plain. Suddenly, there's a low whooshing sound behind you, and before you can turn around, something knocks you roughly to the ground, sending your blade flying from your hand as sharp claws rake across your back, shredding the back of your robes but only just scratching your body.
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Topic: Manaburn: An Apocalyptic Monster-Hunting RPG: Back at the base (Read 9891 times)