Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 101: What we came here for

On one hand, Isaac was functionally immune to fire thanks to the rewards from the original event.

On the other … these things were made of thermite and that crap wasn’t just used to weld railways, it burned even underwater.

In the end, Isaac flung himself out of the sandy, gritty, body of the Thermite avatar, which was currently blazing like a noonday sun, only lightly scorched, parts of skin damaged to a level that barely qualified as a first-degree burn.

The body of the monster, on the other hand, fell to the floor, still very much on fire. With its death, the mixture of iron oxide dust and aluminum shavings continued to burn and would continue to do until all the fuel was used up.

Thermite Avatar (Lv. 23) has been slain. 350 XP gained

Isaac did a quick check of his XP bar and sighed. Still a bit to go.

All the normal duties they’d agreed to had been over and done with, completed without much trouble. Isaac had held his lectures about the proper usage of [Aura], making sure emphasize the importance of thinking about the inspiration behind it, this time around.

There’d also been a few auric sparring matches, but they’d moved outside for that, tearing up an empty patch of dirt rather than an expensive and reinforced training room.

Hak and Amy had spent quite a bit of time exchanging spells, teaching each other their favorite tricks.

And then there’d been a bunch of Dungeon runs to check what the cores would spit out as loot after someone with such exotic powers as them had gone in. The results were always vastly inferior knockoffs, in the rare cases where they got anything, but even those could be invaluable.

After that, Isaac had split off with the promise that he’d rejoin them once he’d unlocked the second core-[Skill] of his new [Class].

Another Thermite Avatar loomed over him, it’s rough face expressionless as its arm stretched and contorted, spearing straight towards his head as it burst into a terrible flame.

Even after a perfect dodge, the last scraps of Isaac’s t-shirt disintegrated as mere proximity immolated them, but the only thing preserving his modesty was the soot and ash that had accumulated on him during the dive.

Still, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, given that he was alone in this Dungeon. He wasn’t supposed to be, given how dangerous these things were, but that S-Rank he’d been given came with a lot of perks, including being allowed to outright ignore such things as ‘this place is too dangerous for one person’, regardless of whether or not it came as advice or an order.

S-Rank came with a lot of power and authority, but also danger. S-Rankers might either end up with a reputation for being so powerful that none of the ordinary rules applied, or being a bunch or arrogant idiots who thought they couldn’t be hurt, disregarded any and all standard precautions, and died because they bit off more than they could chew.

But Isaac didn’t need the knowledge from the other timeline that it would be the former that would prove true. Yoo-jin might sometimes not seem like it, but he was an excellent administer and judge of character. Some people might qualify for S-Rank based on their power, but if their personalities made them unsuitable, they’d be limited to A-Rank, no matter what.

He spun, his blade flashing red as he activated [Power Strike], blasting clean through the arm that had flashed past his head and causing a large chunk to drop off.

The Avatar closed, then ignited, its whole body erupting in flames so hot even Isaac began to sweat a little. Thankfully, they couldn’t use that little trick too often, as it used their form for fuel, but when they did, it was devastating.

With a slightly insane grin on his face, Isaac backflipped to dodge the Avatar’s flaming kick, took two steps backwards, and grabbed the core of the closest Lesser Water Elemental.

The hapless monster sailed through the air, impacted the still ignited body of the Thermite Avatar and erupted into a blast of steam. The sheer heat the Avatar emitted flash-vaporized the water, causing it to go off like a damn bomb, blasting away large chunks of the large monster’s granular body, exposing the core, which was sliced cleanly in half by one of Isaac’s [Far Strike] a moment later

[Lesser Water Elemental] has been killed by Environmental Hazard [Immense Heat]. All XP has been lost, all possible Aspects removed.

Thermite Avatar (Lv. 23) has been slain. 350 XP gained

This Dungeon he was currently in had been created specifically to farm XP in, with the high-Level, high XP value Thermite Avatars being paired with the relatively weak Lesser Water Elementals, which would go off like bombs the moment they came into contact with ignited Avatars, massively limiting the movement and power activation of the stronger monsters.

These kinds of Dungeons gave out incredible amounts of experience, and could be incredibly easy if properly built and calibrated, but there was a rather nasty trap in that entire principle. You could shoot through the Levels through easy access to XP, but [Skill] Levels were slow to come under those kinds of circumstances.

But Isaac wasn’t planning on using them for long, just get enough to gain a few more Levels and unlock the right [Skills], then train them up against some extremely powerful monsters back in Germany. He was currently at a point where jumping Tiers was beyond dangerous, but he knew exactly which monsters he could beat with his current [Skill]set.

Another Avatar charged bodily at him, its form distorting to cover the entirety of the room … and Isaac just [Wave Charged] right through its massively thinned out form, grabbing the core along the way.

This trick spelled death for the rest of his outfit, but he had plenty of spares in his pocket space and a few spare Lesser Space Elemental cores on hand. Sure, they had now dropped to the ground, the pockets he’d stored them in having finally given up the ghost, but he could just as easily carry them in his off hand while he used his main hand to wield his weapon or flinging around the Elementals.

There were more Avatars in the next room, and they likewise charged, carefully avoiding the Elementals underfoot. One of them accidentally stepped on one of the smaller monsters, soaking the leg.

His grin still slightly manic, Isaac rushed past that particular monster, which tried to light itself on fire and promptly exploded as the water in the limb was vaporized. The monster pitched forwards, falling onto another Water elemental, and practically blew itself to pieces. The core itself survived, but little else did, making it a piece of cake to take the monster down for good.

And then, Isaac began to dance, weaving through the throng of beasts, lashing out at weak points, tossing water monsters at burning Avatars and tripping Avatars onto lesser monster that were basically bombs in this particular setup. It took clearing not only this room, but also the one after it, but he’d finally gained enough XP to hit Level 39, and buy his next Core [Skill]. The Stat points, meanwhile had been put into both Magic Power and Magic Regeneration, putting the latter at 110, the same level as his Agility and Perception.

Name: Isaac Thoma

Class: Bladewraith

Species: Human

Level: 39

XP: 23/12,000

Health Status: Scorched, First Degree Burns (13 % of Surface, see precise breakdown?)

Mana: 354/700

Stats

Fortitude

60

Perception

110

Strength

60

Agility

110

Magic Power

70

Magic Regeneration

110

Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill

Aura

Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range, combat, blood, regeneration)

Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection)

Central Skills

Form of Horror XIX

The Chosen Weapon XXIV

I Am The Sword III

Grave of Swords I

Skills

Hundred Faces XX

Stealth XXIII

Power Strike XXVII

Piercing Strike XXVIII

Sundering Strike XXV

Blades XXVI

Sneak XXV

Sweeping Strike X

Far Strike XXII

Manifold Strike XVII

Hunter’s Gaze XXV

Phantom Step XV

Unknown Fear XVI

Bestial Regeneration XIX

Undying Focus XV

Tools of Terror XIX

Fleeting Presence XIII

Crippling Blow IX

Absolute Blade Mastery VII

Compounded Impact IV

General Skills

Gralloch IX

Alchemy X

Aspects

Aspect Skills

Poltergeist (2 stack)

Poltergeist’s Flight

Poltergeist Shift

Hydra (2 stack)

Hydra’s Regeneration

Redundant Organs

Megalodon (2 stack)

Shark’s body

Wave Charge

Fata Morgana (2 stack)

Improved Basic Illusion

Perception Block

Blade Tempest (2 stack)

Blade Control

Eternal Blades

[Empty Slot]

The Stat points were always nice, but the real win was the [Skill].

Grave of Swords (legendary)

A vast field, countless blades thrust into the dirt, each one representing a warrior who fell in battle within this

This is the Grave of Swords, each one containing the power and knowledge of a specific foe, so the user may fight them over and over again, or be used as fuel to enhance this space.

Upon activation of this ability, both the user and one target will be transported to another plane (current size: circle with a 50 meter diameter) for a one minute per Level in this Skill. The target must be either in contact with user or the user’s soulbound weapon when this Skill is activated for it to take effect, though.

The Skill ends if one combatant dies or it hits its time limit, it cannot be deactivated at will.

When an enemy dies within this Skill, a new blade is thrust into these hallowed grounds, containing a record of the fight, the fallen, and a measure of its power. With it, the user may choose to fight against the old foe once more for training purposes, experimenting with new tactics and moves without danger.

However, the weapons store the remnant life force of the monster, which can be used as additional fuel for this Skill as its cost increases with the strength of the other participant (+10 mana per opponent Level over the user’s, +100 for each Tier barrier between the user’s Level and the monster’s, overall cost doubled for Bosses, quintupled for Raid Bosses and increased tenfold for World Bosses)

This Skill can only be activated every 6 hours and cost requires 1,500 mana to use, which it either siphons off from the user’s mana regeneration so long as the user’s mana pool is full or draws from the swords themselves. Cooldown can be bypassed by paying double the normal activation cost from the stored blades.

Cost: 1,500 banked mana base cost for combat purposed, cost increases with target’s power, increase must be paid from stored blades or the user’s mana pool

Isaac confident that, in a one-on-one fight, there were only a handful of people whose ass he couldn’t handily kick, and even then, he figured he still had far greater than merely even odds at winning.

Those calculation changed drastically when he thought of fighting multiple opponents, though. At its most basic, this [Skill] would let him turn any fight into a one-on-one battle, but that was only the beginning of its myriad uses.

In addition, using this [Skill] let him drag a monster out of reality and away from anything they might wreck and anyone they might end up killing, handily taking care of that issue. If he could charge that [Skill] up enough, he might even be able to suck in a [Raid Boss]. Sure, taking one down on his own wouldn’t really be possible, but he could buy everyone time to prepare and tear the ever loving fuck out of its weakpoints.

Sure, their endurance-focused design prevented easy killshots, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be any weaker after being enucleated, hamstrung, stabbed in every sensitive place he knew about and put on the road to exsanguination by devastating damage to major blood vessels.

And if he ever found any worthy human adversaries, he could train against them as often as he wanted.

But now, it was time to try it out.

He burst through another room, annihilating all monsters within, but his main target had been the one behind it, the Boss chamber.

With his [Aura of the Desperate Seeker], Isaac had already been able to determine that the Boss was an oversized Thermite Avatar that was far more capable of changing its shape, making it an incredible threat, as well as having several backup cores to prevent it from being destroyed in a single strike. It also had a pair of regular Avatars as attendants/bodyguards, but Isaac wasn’t worried about those.

He walked into the next chamber, seemingly without a care in the world, ducking under the first swipe from one of the lesser Thermite Avatars, leaped over the second’s kick and triggered [Wave Charge] in midair, flinging himself right at the main foe, the point of his blade leading the charge.

As it impacted the monster’s chest, a violet light began to shine from the point of contact, and the world warped.

The Avatar seemed to twist and compress as it was sucked into a single point, while Isaac simply ‘fell’ forward, right into the spatial fold … and then, neither of them were a part of normal reality anymore.

Instead, they stood on opposite sides of a flat disk of black dirt, dark fog wreathing the outside, something he knew to be an impenetrable wall. The mist continued skywards, forming a dome, though it lightened somewhat and acquired a violet glow, which illuminated the ground, casting the entire world in a sinister light.

With a soundless roar, four humanlike arms emerged from the monster’s torso, lashing out at him. The fingers elongated and intertwined into a flaming net of death, almost impossible to destroy.

Isaac charged, dropping the Lesser Space Elemental core from his left hand and summoning a copy of the Kriegsmesser, then began cutting, tearing the net to shreds even as fragments broke off and smashed into his skin.

Unfortunately, the second he was through, the arms began to retract, nearly catching him in the back.

He continued to charge, barely staying ahead of the attacks, and flung each of Old Reliable’s forms, then triggered its weapon triplication ability for a total of nine flying blades, then applied [Compounded Impact] to each. A total of nine blades hammered home, the [Skill’s] exponential cost draining him of over five-hundred mana, but it also blew apart the creature’s mass, the monster’s multiple cores dropping to the ground. Several cores had been destroyed in the initial impact, but plenty more survived.

Isaac surged forwards, and even as the monster’s body came back together, destroyed each core with a [Power Strike] boosted stomp.

As the last rock splintered beneath his heel, the space seemed to shiver. The entirety of the monster suddenly vanished and a bright, orange light appeared overhead. A brilliantly shining rapier slowly fell toward the ground, point first, until it touched the dirt, sank in a few centimeters and finally stilled.

It just sat there, immobile, but Isaac could tell that if he wanted to, he could call up a copy of the monster whenever he wanted to so he could fight it once more. He also knew that he wouldn’t do so. Instead, it would be fuel for this space so he could draw in stronger monsters.

Hell, the only reason he’d been able to grab this one was that he had over ten Levels on the monster and boss or no boss, that had been enough.

Then, the space winked out and dumped him straight in the laps of two normal Thermite Avatars, but both fell in a matter of seconds.

The boss chest, meanwhile, contained nothing but cash. Yep, this was one pissed-off Dungeon and it would likely have to be destroyed soon, but until then, it was a great XP source for him.

A minute later, he emerged from the Dungeon, still covered in soot but wearing almost completely clean clothes, his S-Ranker badge attached to his belt.

“Good Dungeon run?” one of the Hunter’s outside commented.

“Yep, you’ve got a nice setup here.” Isaac nodded.

“We’d better. We took our time, and set up a proper system of levelling, unlike some other nation that shall remain nameless.” The man grinned at him. Of course, Isaac knew exactly what he was referring to.

There two East Asian nations with unique and truly public summoning cultures. Sure, there were freaky things happening in China and North Korea, but you didn’t really hear about any of those.

What you did have was South Korea and its Dungeons, and … Japan.

Where South Korea, and as it so happened, Singapore, had come out of the Initialization smelling like roses and far stronger, Japan’s response to the [System] had been rather more … rocky. Depending on the location, they managed to achieve great things, or barely stave off utter disaster, all depending on the individuals involved.

There were many people who felt that in this new world, one that looked so much like something from one of their stories, they were in the role of the protagonist. Sure, people like that existed all over the world, but in areas with literature closer to the [System] itself had a far greater number of those.

Some of the ‘protagonists’ were actually competent, gaining a great deal of power, but others suffered from some serious delusions of grandeur.

And the initial wave of incidents had ended up informing the future of the area in which they happened, some creating a populace-wide aversion to summoning, or turned summoners into celebrities. Hell, Tokyo had a bunch of new monster-themed attractions, including things like an indoor-playground kind of arena in which you could chase around a convincing illusion of a monster and pretend to be a badass.

Isaac ambled across the city, buying street food at every opportunity that presented itself, gorging himself to a degree that would have ended with a burst stomach in a normal person. It might be a bit small minded, but to him, new cuisine was one of the best things about going to a new country.

Two minutes before he reached the Guild’s main building to meet Bailey and Amy, his phone rang.

“Hey, what’s up?” he asked.

Of course, he knew exactly what was going on. The big information packet he’d uploaded had just been released.