Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 116: Another Departure

“And you’re absolutely sure there’s nothing else you’d like me to tell you?” Isaac asked for what felt like the millionth time in the last hour.

“Yes, we’re sure.” Patrick sighed “And asking over and over again isn’t going to change that. We’ve asked you about everything we could think of, and you have that ‘in case something happens’ list hidden on your property, I think that’s about all we can do to prepare.”

“We’ll probably be able to think of a million things the moment you walk out of the door, but for now, Patrick’s right.” Amy added.

“Now, are you sure you have everything?” Karl asked “All the potions you need, enough cores to summon them when you need to, no custom gear that needs to be put on rush order … hell, I could probably still make some basic stuff in time for your flight.”

“Nah, I’m fine.” Isaac shook his head “Thank you for offering, though.”

“Are you sure you don’t want any of us to go along with you?” Bailey asked “I know you said you wanted to go at this alone, but …”

“Absolutely.” Isaac cut him off “Look, I appreciate the offer, but I’m not going to change my mind. Someone needs to remain to continue our research. I’ve already given you most of what I know and much of the rest, the stuff that would do more harm than good if I just handed it over at this time, that is written down in case I don’t live long enough to pass it along myself.”

He paused, wiping at his eyes “I’m coming back, you know. But I‘d still like to thank you all, for everything you’ve done for me these last few months. You’ve been the best company I could have hoped for, and I appreciate it.”

“Hey, right back atcha.” Amy waved “And in case nothing bad happens over there, don’t forget to have some fun. Scratch that, whatever happens, do something you enjoy, don’t just sit there and brood for a week.”

Isaac gave a sad chuckle in reply “I’ll try. See you on the flipside, guys.”

With a heavy heart, he turned and walked out of the door of the meeting room after saying his goodbyes. Once outside, he strolled across the university campus, watching people go about their daily lives. A pall hang in the air, turning the atmosphere incredibly heavy despite the fact that nothing bad had happened within two-hundred kilometers of here during the Event. But most people were fully aware of the fact that it could have, that there was no real way to predict this ahead of time, and the effects of that realization were still being felt, over a week later.

And this was a university campus, these were smart people, they knew how badly yesterday could have turned out.

But things had gone well here at least, and that was a good sign. Sure, Isaac might not have had a situation from the other timeline to compare the Event to, but he could still tell that things had gone so much better than they could have.

Soon enough, he left the campus behind and was making his way through the ‘wilderness’. It wasn’t true, unclaimed nature, just the closest thing you could get this close to a major city, but it was still fairly free of people.

And then he finally reached the airport, getting a couple of odd looks because he was walking to an airport that most people reached via public transport or car, not by jumping across the nearby highway.

From there, things went surprisingly smoothly. After the kerfuffle his Level had caused the last two times he’d come through here, it seemed security had gained the ability to recognize him and ended up letting him through without an absurd level of scrutiny.

While waiting at the gate, Isaac ended up buying a whole bottle of whiskey and downing it in the time it took to get back to his seat. There was a brief spell of tipsiness, but even that wore off after a couple of minutes. Alcohol being unavailable as an escape was definitely a damn good thing, and in general, it was great that high Level people wouldn’t do something stupid just because they’d gotten drunk, but it was still a reminder of how much he’d changed, how different he was from a regular person now.

And then came the flight. As usual, it sucked, but there was still some new information from the Event to work through, so at least he was able to keep busy. Typing up reports, mentally going over his memory of the fights and coming up with ways for the various archetypes to defeat them. It was relatively basic work but fulfilling. It certainly worked well to fritter away the hours of enforced immobility.

As the plane banked to the side during its final descent to the airport, Isaac dug his S-Ranker badge out of his backpack and attached it to his belt, then tucked in his shirt to make sure the badge could actually be seen.. Some Hunters wore them around their neck, others clipped it to their chest armor, right over their heart, and others still had in on a wrist bracelet, but Isaac preferred to have in on his belt.

Pretty soon, Isaac was walking out into the airport, backpack slung over one shoulder, his badge of rank glinting brightly at his belt. After all, he’d just polished it.

Plenty of the people who got off the plane with him didn’t seem to care, but those were mostly tourists and foreign businessmen. The returning locals and the airport staff though, they knew what the badge meant. It marked him as being powerful, trusted by at least some people high up in the government, but also as being incredibly dangerous.

Security was a breeze after that. The gal at the counter took one look at his badge, checked the registry of Hunters and waved him through after just glancing at his ID.

“Mr. Thoma, there’s a standing order to ask Hunters returning to the country to drop by the Dungeon Guild Administrative Center.” She said offhandedly.

“Sure. You have a nice day.” Isaac nodded. She’d been technically wrong about him being a registered Hunter, only someone known to and somewhat aligned with the Guild, but quite frankly, that didn’t matter much to him. It might have ruffled another person’s feathers, but Isaac was perfectly fine with it.

Getting to downtown Seoul on foot would have been perfectly possible, but in the end, Isaac chose to take a cab. In fact, he didn’t even have to name his destination, the driver merely glanced at his badge and asked ‘Dungeon Guild Headquarters?”

Isaac had nodded, and then been driven here, to the massive, heavily enchanted building in the heart of South Korea’s capital city.

On the way here, he’d paid a fair bit of attention to the mood here, and it hadn’t been good. People were scared, and it was a far more visceral fear than what he’d felt back home. It wasn’t merely an awareness of a disaster having happened a few days ago, there was so much more to this than that. No, a true awareness of the fact that their neighbor to the north was coming apart at the seams had developed and with it had come information on just what said neighbor had been doing.

They’d always known nasty shit was happening up north, but it was an entirely different thing to learn how many nukes there’d been, how crappy said nukes had been and how high the risk of them just randomly ‘cooking off’ had been.

And, oh yeah, the mysterious message that had rocked the world had also specifically warned them of a Demon Lord being used to attack them, and those rumors had been confirmed. Nothing had happened yet, but the supposed date of the attack was still two days in the future. And that was scary as hell. A horrifying foe was bearing down on them, but they didn’t know anything more about it than the fact that it had existed at some point in the past.

The nukes, meanwhile, shouldn’t be a problem going forwards. Official pronouncements from independent UN investigators had announced the North Korean nuclear programs as dismantled, individual bombs defused and disposed of.

That … probably wasn’t the truth. In the other timeline, that whole affair had been over and done with mere months after the [System] had initialized and the method was incredibly weird. And it was, well, a researchers dog had eaten the bombs. A press ganged scientist had been summoning in secret and a combination of his education, vocation and goals had given him a variant on the [Summoner] [Class] that had upgraded his dog into a part-time, radiation powered hellhound straight out of a post-apocalyptic horror movie. So he’d sent the pooch into the bases while transformed, had it eat the fissionable material, and get out. Then the whole affair had gotten blamed on monsters, and he’d gotten away scot-free. If the same affair had played out in this timeline, he should be revealing himself in a year or so. However, with the North Korean government all but gone, there was a decent chance of that happening a great deal sooner.

All in all, this should have been a happy time, but the fact that there’d been an apocalyptic threat about to be unleashed upon this city and that said threat was not yet confirmed to be neutralized … people were scared.

“So you’re here in case something happens, right? A lot of people assume the day that hellhole was founded is when they wanted to drop that [Raid Boss] on us and people are a little worried.”

“I’m here mostly on business, but if something kicks off, I’ll definitely help.” Isaac said as he paid the cabbie and exited the car “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it if something happens.”

He wasn’t nearly as confident about that, but it would do him no good to tell the man that. The Demon Lord would be stopped, that wasn’t in question, but whether or not there would be much of a city left after that was still up in the air. Hell, most of the country could end up trashed, depending on how it was countered.

As he walked towards the building, it jumped out at him just how many people were wearing Rank badges now. Slate grey for F-Rank, aka anyone who still had their starter [Class], but only if said [Class] was common and the person in question didn’t have outstandingly powerful [Skills] or Aspects. D through B Rank were evenly distributed between the weakest people who weren’t F-Rank and the strongest who weren’t A-Rank, which was the current peak power, around the million strongest people in the world. And then, there were the S-Rankers like Isaac, those who would be A-Rank based on their Level, but broke the mold. High rarity [Classes], vastly upgraded [Skills], an immense skill and talent in combat … there were many things that could qualify one for that vaunted Rank, and Isaac ticked most of the boxes.

Appraising eyes zeroed in on him, looking at his badge, his clothing that had clearly been made by a high Level [Tailor], a magical weapon that no one could [Analyze] because his personal anti-inspection [Skills] extended to it. All in all, even those who didn’t recognize him could tell that he was someone important.

Quite a few people looked like they wanted to walk up to him for a conversation, but Isaac simply stared straight ahead as he headed inside. Not as if he were above them, mind you, he just made himself look like he was busy. Throw in with his presumed position of political power, and it suddenly interrupting whatever it was he wanted to do seemed like not such a good idea.

Where he was supposed to go just so happened to be rather obvious, given that there was a sign stating ‘returning Hunters, please check in with Deputy Director Im on the 14th floor’. Sure, the sign was in Korean, but that was hardly a problem for Isaac.

Now, at this point it would have been fun to just jump up there by phasing and normally, Isaac might have even done that, but people were so damn on edge here that doing so would probably cause quite the kerfuffle.

Therefore, he made his way upstairs the old fashioned way, easily reaching the office. In fact, there wasn’t even a closed door barring his way.

Isaac knocked on the wall besides it and the man inside looked up. He was middle aged, maybe fifty, which was rather unusual for a member of the Guild. Summoning and Dungeon diving was a young man’s game, and the organizational structure reflected this.

“Good afternoon, I’m …” the man broke off as he got a good look at Isaac and his badge “Good afternoon, Mr. Thoma. Can I ask how long you’re planning on staying?”

“As long as it takes to level up a few times.” Isaac replied “And what’s going on here? I know there’s the whole thing with the [Raid Boss], is that connected to why I was told to come here?”

“Yes, actually. The information we have is that the people who were meant to summon this thing have a build meant specifically summon monsters without having the power to endanger their superiors.”

“High Magic Power, very little in all other Stats, barely any spells known?” Isaac suggested.

“Exactly.” Im nodded “I’ve been told you have a [Skill] that can see other people’s stats?”

Isaac nodded in turn.

“Therefore, I’d like you to be on the lookout for anyone with that particular Stat spread, as well as take part in the courses for anti-[Raid Boss] protocols. They’re still in their infancy, but it’s important to have at least some kind of plan in the face of such a threat, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Absolutely.” Isaac said “Would you mind if I took a look at those protocols though? I’ve worked with several both the police and military back in Germany to develop similar tactics, and I believe my insight could be valuable.”

“Of course.” Im replied “And while I’m fully aware of the fact that you’re not a full member of the Guild and therefore under no obligation to do so, but would it be possible for you to give another lecture on proper [Aura] use.”

“Oh, I’d be happy to. In fact, I think it might be a good idea to identify those whose [Auras] would have the greatest impact in mass combat so I could give them some one-on-one training.”

“Hm, I don’t think releasing the files needed to make those determinations to you would be possible, but I’ll get a few people together and get you a list. Now, I believe there’s a drill starting in thirty minutes, I believe you can still catch that if you leave now.”

“Of course.” Isaac dipped his head “Please let me know when you have that list and where I should go for that.”

With that, he headed out of the building and over to the training center. Once again, he got a lot of odd looks as he entered the training room with his S-Rank badge. Most likely, the other high Rankers had already received exhaustive training, which would have explained why the highest Rank in the room after his was C. In other words, this current situation was akin to a black belt showing up in a children’s karate class for more training.

Training itself was pretty basic involving simple strategies like the toughest person drawing in the attacks that could be blocked, someone agile drawing AOE attacks away from the main group, proper coordination to avoid friendly fire, etc. All of these things should have been obvious and they probably were, but pulling them off without at least some training was hard.

That being said, high Level South Koreans had some of the finest small team tactics in the world and this was just a more complicated version of that.

Time flowed like sirup as Isaac pretended to ‘learn’ stuff he already knew, but at least it seemed that the plans had been well thought out. If only he hadn’t committed himself to suffering through it …

Still, all things came to an end, and immediately afterwards, Isaac just fled into the nearest Dungeon of an appropriate Level, flashing his badge to get past the ‘only teams of five appropriately levelled people allowed’.

He spent four hours tearing a bloody swath through a swarm of monsters that looked like vastly empowered versions of the animals you’d find in a normal boreal forest. Massive razorbacks with glowing coals for eyes, pumas that were functionally invisible before attacking, with a titanic Grizzlar for a boss. Isaac wouldn’t have known what that was if it hadn’t been for the information pamphlet at the entrance, and that species was actually kind of interesting. It was a hybrid of a Grizzly and a Polar Bear that had started cropping up in the wild lately and someone had decided to feed the dungeon some hair.

Isaac sighed as Old Reliable switched from its Kriegsmesser form to the Zweihänder. Whoever had tossed in that damn hair had been an idiot. As high Tier, from Tier 6 onwards, versions of normal animals were created by [Beast Tamers] or Dungeons, they gained magical powers. He knew that Grizzly’s gained earth magic, while Polar Bears got some measure of control over ice, snow and the cold. In other words, a Tier 6 combination of those two could be a serious pain in the ass.

The truck sized bear was lying on its side, looking to all the world like a boulder, or maybe the world’s most misshapen sofa, seemingly paying very little attention to its surroundings.

Isaac slowly snuck closer, all his stealth [Skills] deadening the sounds of his footsteps, wiping away the scent of his sweat, and even if the damn furball had been looking around, it wouldn’t have spotted him.

That worked for a bit, but eventually, he crossed the border into the beast’s [Aura], which held a combination of frosty coldness and the overwhelming, indomitable might of an ancient mountain. Normally, this would have been the end of the road without a specific sneaking-related [Aura], but Isaac merely shifted his regular sensory [Aura] to gently push apart the beast’s [Aura].

A few more steps, and he was in range, lunging forward in a [Wave Charge], a [Piercing-Power Strike] rending flesh like tissue paper, with the first charge of [Compounded Impact] applied.

The bear managed to move just in time to avoid getting a blade to skull, but it still ended up with a horrific wound to the chest made all the worse by Isaac applying the full suite of attack enhancing [Skills] as he yanked the blade back out. Blood sprayed through the air as the bear’s roar of agony shook the cavern.

Both the beast’s magic and [Aura] flared to full power, a field of bitter cold suffusing the entire area as earth bullets tore themselves free from the floor, walls and ceiling.

Isaac ducked and weaved, dodging those with too much mana to phase through safely while letting the rest fly straight through him. His blade danced, lightly smacking the bear’s head five times, more and more mana flowing into the attacks until the skull cracked. Sure, the bear might have been able to dodge under normal circumstances, but the earlier injuries were hindering its mobility.

All it took was one more hit and the bear dropped to the ground, dead. Isaac skinned the bear but decided to leave the meat alone after sniffing it for a moment. He’d been told by some old-school hunters that some bears tasted rather nice, but others didn’t. Grizzlys and their diet of fish gave them a distinct fishy taste, which matched the gross odor that wafted up from the body.

Wrinkling his nose, Isaac rolled the pelt up into a neat package, slung in over his shoulder and headed deeper into the cave, where the Core and boss loot would be located.

The treasure chest looked cool and all, resembling a beautiful, handcrafted box that seemed to have been taking straight out of some pioneer’s log house, but the loot was … disappointing.

Great Bear’s Visage

The upper jaw and skull of an immense bear, hollowed out to be worn like a cap. Wearing it grants immunity to beestings.

Basically, it looked like the headpiece of a Halloween barbarian costume, and that was exactly what Isaac would be using it for.

With the headpiece safely stored in his storage space and the pelt slung onto his back, he headed outside, where a young woman in a fancy runner’s uniform was waiting on him. And that was exactly what she was. A courier that worked for the Dungeon Guild, not just transporting materials, but also occasionally delivering personal messages.

“Mr. Thoma, Director Im has written up that list you wanted and would like to see you in his office at your earliest convenience.” She said.

“Well, that was fast. Thank you.” Isaac replied, bade goodbye to the people guarding the Dungeon’s entrance and sped off, running towards the admin tower at speeds exceeding that of a car on the highway by a decent margin.

***

“You need to harden your [Aura] as you push it forwards. The people behind you are your teammates, you don’t need to protect yourself from them, you’re protecting them. Do it like this!” Isaac ordered one of his trainees and the man jumped in fright, he’d been concentration so much he hadn’t noticed his teacher standing there for a good thirty seconds.

This was how the last couple of days had gone. Teaching people, looking over protocols, dreading that damn message from popping up because, well, the appearance of a [Raid Boss] was announced to everyone within a hundred kilometers.

This wasn’t a kindness, though. Instead, the message would make sure everyone knew there was a [Raid Boss] whose loot could be ninja’d, forcing anyone who tried to go after it to keep back a lot of their manpower to keep away said looters.

Really though, Isaac was starting to let himself hope none of that would come to pass. The North Korea of a few months ago, the one who’d caused this problem in the other timeline, no longer existed and with every passing day, the chance of the summoners getting caught rose ever higher.

And if there really wasn’t a problem, well, he’d create a well-trained force of fighters and they’d owe him a favor to call in if a [Raid Boss] popped up elsewhere.

He’d wait a few more days, then go back to Germany to continue his regular research. His work here wouldn’t have been as impactful as it might have been, but it should still have been …

Least Demon Lord (Tier 6) has been summoned near your location.

Summon Location: Kijong-dong (62.9 km away, direction NNW)