Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 100: Celebration

Bracers of any Defense

A beautiful pair of Bracers made from the only vaguely defined form of a Dungeon monster, which, in turn, was comprised of many other beasts.

And just like that monster, its form is variable. Its default form uses Reaping Centipede Chitin on the outside, with Runner Basilisk Lizard leather coating the inside, but all it takes to change that, are some material samples and a little mana.

Current Configuration: Default

“Come on, either marry those bracers, or get out there.” Amy said, elbowing Isaac in the side for emphasis.

“Sure, be there in a sec.” He replied, slipped them on and followed her outside.

While he’d been dealing with all the various gains from the Dungeon run, a serious party had been developing out here. After all, a fresh Dungeon had been fully cleared and spat some pretty nice loot, at least if you ignored the incident with the literal fortune that had be destroyed.

This Dungeon was basically the equivalent of a newly discovered gold mine being acquired by one’s company, or a new market being conquered. It was a promise of wealth and prosperity to come and of course, it was celebrated. Besides, most Hunters were on the younger side and rather excitable, they needed an outlet that wasn’t the wanton slaughter of monsters. To be that young again …

Isaac chuckled softly, shaking his head at the silliness of his thoughts.

‘To be that young again?’

He was twenty, damnit, and here he was, was acting like some wizened old grandpa.

… well, he was technically thirty-two, but even that wasn’t as old as he was acting right now. He shook his head again and pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind, keeping them there as he walked out into the party proper.

Yoo-jin had spent a large part of the time Isaac had taken to check his notifications to play around with the shapeshifting sword and it showed in how easily he was throwing that thing around now.

He couldn’t use it to its fullest potential since his [Class] was ice aspected and the blade’s elemental attack was fire based, but it wasn’t that much of a problem.

The greatest boon granted by the blade was its ability to shift shapes and gain alternative abilities based on what its wielder needed, with the ability to ignite it at will being a distant secondary benefit.

Yet even then, igniting the sword while it was stuck in a frozen opponent or solid object would use the concept of expansion and contraction and shattering the target into pieces.

Besides, even a poor knockoff of Old Reliable was still a shapeshifting weapon whose usefulness could not be underestimated.

Things like this, inferior copies of equipment that was brought inside or borrowed some features from [Class] [Skills] were rather common loot, or at least they would be a few months from now, but they rarely matched one’s requirements exactly.

Of course, they’d also walked away with a literal fortune in rare minerals and gemstones, to be used in summoning, enchanting, or simply sold for cash, but those could be sourced from elsewhere, you didn’t need to go fight monsters for those.

By the time Isaac got out into the main hall of the training center, the party was in full swing. And just like any party with high-Level people a few months after the [System’s] Initialization, you’d think everyone here was an alcoholic.

Magically infused drinks that affected people with their Fortitude beyond fifty were still a pipe dream, so to get even the most remote semblance of normal ‘drinking’, a different approach was required. Namely, a high volume of a high proof beverage.

Mind you, even that wasn’t enough to affect people for long, at least not how they did it here. A round of drinks was poured, something in the same vein as Everclear in volumes of maybe a quarter of a liter each, downed in a single motion and maybe ten minutes later, everyone was stone cold sober again.

With how much was being drunk, one would not have expected the party to be this controlled and normal.

Isaac had a few memories of how frat parties had gone totally off the rails, with people desperately chasing the sweet nothingness of drunkenness, literally downing multiple bottles of vodka and the like in less than a minute, then drinking more by the bottleful every time the fog of alcohol began to lift ever so slightly.

Isaac grabbed a bottle from a nearby table and poured two glasses, one for Amy and the other for himself.

“Well, first Dungeon cleared completely safely, and met some really interesting people, I think that deserves a toast. Cheers!” he said, their glasses clinked together before they threw them back.

“How can anyone drink that?” Amy glared at him.

“Meh, it’s not that bad.” He shrugged.

“Remember when you got that bottle of weird rum after that one frat party? You looked like someone sent you a dead skunk and that stuff is just as bad. What gives?”

“Memories. This stuff is nasty, but it doesn’t make me remember hanging over the toilet bowl, puking, followed by the worst hangover I ever had.” Isaac explained “But yeah, I think we should switch to something that tastes good, getting tipsy is just not an attainable goal at the moment.”

“Chicken.” Amy mumbled.

“Pragmatic.” He corrected “So, see you around?”

The party continued on for maybe another couple of hours or so, with people filtering in and out the whole time. Yes, it was a party, but between a lack of drunkenness that ruined people’s self-control and the fact that it was a Monday night when people did, in fact, have stuff to do, it stayed pretty down to Earth.

The whole atmosphere had slowly shifted from ‘party’ to ‘formal gathering’ with people wheeling and dealing, striking deals and hiring new party members.

Actually, it was Amy who was getting propositioned the most. Her [Class] was an Evolution of [System Researcher], which Hak, Professor Kim’s assistant, had proven to be very powerful. He was also South Korea’s only [System Researcher] and quite definitely not budging from his current position. This had led to a situation where everyone wanted a [System Researcher] on their team, but there was only one person in the country who fit the bill and looked like they might be convinced to change jobs.

In addition, both Bailey and Isaac were far more tightly tied to the university through their official titles, which meant that people were less willing to approach them with a basic ‘so, how about you join my team and run Dungeons with us’ offer.

Then, the cleanup after the party was over in a literal flash as someone waved their hand, utterly disintegrating any trash, then cast another spell that packed up everything else. Magic could be damn handy at times.

“Isaac, could we talk in my office for a bit?” Yoo-jin asked, stepping up next to him.

“Sure.” He said, then, once he was seated across the desk from the Guildmaster he asked “So, what’s up?”

“First of all, I have something for you.” Yoo-jin said, sliding what looked like a cross between a badge and a medal, made from redgold and with a stylized ‘S’ on the front, across the table.

“You introduced letter grades, didn’t you?” Isaac asked.

“We’re working on it, sure. People wanted to use these from the very beginning, but it’s a little tricky to do when the power scale keeps moving up. Any system we introduced would have been outdated within days. Now though, it’s been arranged so the ranks reflect the bearer’s strength relative to their Level, rather than their overall Level. You, for example, are hardly the highest Level but can probably take most of those. So, after that Dungeon run, here's your S-Rank.

“It entitles you to access any Dungeon that’s not currently being run by someone else, regardless of official Level restrictions and gives you a certain degree of authority in case of emergencies. Then there’s the bragging rights …” Yoo-jin stopped talking as Isaac chuckled softly.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

“Not really.” Isaac shook his head “I’m grateful, really. It’s just that I realized what comes next.”

Yoo-jin nodded “In that case, I suppose it’s time to cut to the chase.”

Another object was slid across the table, this time, it was a pretty thick wad of paper.

“You’re a powerful fighter, have a high degree of common sense and you’re the expert on [Aura]. The Guild would like you to stay here as an instructor, and is willing to offer you a great deal in exchange.”

“Yeah, I can see that. Yearly salary to the tune of nearly five million Euros a year, a penthouse apartment, with the choice of either getting one in an existing building, or taking up residence in a hotel until the new, specialized ‘Hunter Housing’ buildings are completed. Priority access to all Dungeons, limited Dungeon creation access authority, the ability to create my own squad … well, all of this is very generous.” Isaac observed “But I’m afraid I’ll have to decline. I like my job just the way it is and what I’m doing is, well helping a lot of people. That being said, I don’t see why I couldn’t drop by here every couple of months to grind some XP and teaching some of your best and brightest in between Dungeon runs.”

Yoo-jin started to say something, but Isaac held up his right hand to stop him.

“Look, I appreciate everything you’ve offered here, but there is nothing, material or otherwise, that will convince me to leave my current job. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like it here and I’m perfectly willing to drop by every so often, but I’m afraid I’m not relocating here.”

Yoo-jin merely pulled the paper off the table and replaced it with another one.

“In Germany, you have a good set of facilities, which we will be using to, among other things, level some [Geomancers]. For that purpose, the Hunter’s Guild has several private planes. You could simply hop on one of those flights and be very well compensated for your time.”

With the basic idea of their relationship going forward having been determined, it was time to get down to brass tacks.

In essence, it boiled down to, ‘those planes will be there a lot, hop on whenever you want and get paid a lot’. Isaac was pretty sure he wouldn’t be taking advantage of that too often, given how much time would be wasted in the air even with a [Pilot] who’d been powerlevelled all the way to their second Evolution, but it was still a fantastic option. Besides, he’d have to drop by a couple of times in the near future anyway.

And after that, finally, they checked into the hotel, dropped off their luggage and went to bed. Well, they only slept for maybe a quarter of an hour, but it had still been needed.

Tomorrow would be awesome. Hopefully.