4

My mind folded under the pressure of exhaustion, and blood loss. Sleep took me quickly. I wasn't the type to fall asleep easily. I felt better when I woke up. I stood up right away.

Checking my phone only to find it was dead because I'd fallen asleep with it on. I moved over to the charging station, and plugged my phone in. The place was empty by then. It was eight in the morning, and everyone who had the slightest stake in this place would be out working. I made my way outside, and went to find Johnny, and Sam. 

It didn't take me long to find Sam. He was feeding the rabbits for me. 

"Hey Sam," I rubbed his head, "Can you tell me what you think of the man in charge here?"

"He's really nice," Sam's expression visibly brightened. 

I was disappointed with his response. It only confirmed that the boys were being manipulated. Sam had absolutely no reason to like the man. He'd only met him two or three times since we'd gotten here. I smiled tensely before walking over to where Sam said Johnny would be. 

It didn't take me long to find him working in the laundromat. He handed me a fresh set of clothing as soon as he saw me. I didn't have to think about it much. 

"Hey Johnny," I gripped his shoulders, "What do you think of the man who's in charge here?" 

"He's nice I guess?" Johnny was older so he wasn't as easily manipulated as his little brother. 

"He's a bad man that's trying to control you," I leaned in close to whisper in his ear, "Don't trust him no matter what he says or does to get your attention." I leaned back with a gentle smile as if we'd been sharing sweet nothings, "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Johnny nodded a little nervously. 

"I want you to make sure your little brother understands that we can't stay here," I kept my voice low, "We will be leaving here as soon as I can pull it off. Make sure he knows that."

Johnny's expression turned more serious. He nodded again. This time with determination. Whatever manipulation he was using was slowly easing it's way into the boys minds. It wasn't some violent takeover.

It was a gentle suggestive takeover. Gentle or not I didn't want my boys being manipulated. If it really did turn out that they didn't have family anymore then I would probably adopt the boys. I'd practically raised most of my siblings, so raising children was something I was familiar with. I was just glad both boys hadn't lashed out yet. 

They really hadn't been left to stew over what had happened yet. Once they actually had some time to settle, and think about the death that had surrounded them I'd probably run into some trouble. There was only so long they could put off feeling the pain before they started lashing out. Boss man's manipulation was probably suppressing their feelings to a certain extent. I knew that was fundamentally bad for their mental health long term. 

I needed either a month or one dungeon to bring myself up to the level I'd need to survive traveling with the boys. That was if I managed to get outside of the walls, and get some kills. There was one other important piece of information I'd managed to find while I'd been binge reading last night. I pulled up the system, and found the spectral mapping skill. At first glance it looked like a worthless skill. 

It was a simple skill that worked kind of like echo location. The skill pinged off other mana sources, and relayed that information to the skill user. The skill was at it's strongest when your mana capacity was full. The skill description didn't give the skill much justice. It just said that your aura would bounce off other auras, and alert you to their locations. 

The description that was on social media was much better then the one in the system. Another user described what it felt like to use the skill. He described it like focusing on his heartbeat, and feeling the mana of someone else's heartbeat. At the lower level it was only accurate when your mana was full, and the mana source was within a hundred feet. Literally giving you a three dimensional map of your surroundings. 

Echo location, but with mana instead. It was slow, and annoying compared to eyesight, but in the higher levels the skill would evolve into mana sight. A blind awakened discovered this by constantly using, and upgrading the skill to survive. Mana sight was completely different then the spectral mapping skill. Way more useful, and way more dangerous. 

It allowed you to see all around you without using your eyes constantly, and the range was limited only by you mana. The more mana you had the larger your range would be. The range of your sight would shrink as you used more of you mana. Once you ran out of mana you wouldn't be able to use the skill to see anymore. Running yourself out of mana was the same effect as blinding yourself if you were relying on the skill to see. 

It would come in handy in a pinch. If I was blinded in a fight for example. I left Johnny to do his work. I walked to a spot where there was almost no people around. I started exercising right away. This spot was up against the wall, and between two buildings.

It was dark, and no one liked coming down here due to how close it was to the wall. I didn't care. There were a lot of heavy bricks, and such down this ally. It wasn't hard to find enough weight to make my numbers go up faster. I was determined to get all five stat points today. 

If I was going to get out of here I would need them. Every last one would be important for me to survive when the shit hit the fan. I was quiet, and the ally was deep enough that no one would find me here unless they were looking for me. I had forced open the main mana veins throughout my body. I circulated my mana through my body as fast as I could