Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 136: Topsy-Turvy Chaos

Just like the last time he’d fought a monster like this, Isaac had made sure there wasn’t anything loose, non-living around in his summoning area. No chalk for drawing out circles, no random rocks, and even most of the dust had been sucked into his storage space. Heck, Isaac was even in his birthday suit because getting strangled with the collar of your own shirt by an Arcane Poltergeist was a shitty way to go. Not because it was particularly painful, but because it was so damn avoidable.

The beast in question was only the second Tier 7 monster that Isaac had summoned in this timeline, the first having been the Greater Hydra. But where the first one had merely been at the very top of ‘can still be beaten by mundane weapons without going nuclear’, this one was utterly invulnerable to conventional armament. If this thing got free, it would be very, very bad.

Isaac wouldn’t have picked this fight if he hadn’t known he could win. [Legendary Blow] was at a Level he was satisfied with, he had the right Stats, and everything else that he needed.

Once again, he drew out a series of blood magic runes on Balmung’s blade. He still rarely used this kind of magic, but then again, it was pretty damn situational. In some fights, that blood loss could be enough to get him kill, so he didn’t use it then, and in others, his regular [Strikes] were more than enough so he didn’t have to resort to self-mutilation.

These Ephemeral things, on the other hand, were the right combination of annoying and exceedingly vulnerable to make them the perfect target.

Against more physical enemies, he’d have needed regular runic magic, whose description could be gained from the Crystalline Sage [Raid Boss], but sadly, Isaac hadn’t memorized many of them. And the few he did know, he couldn’t properly use.

That being said, he had passed them along to Karl so he could see what could be done with them, and it had paid off in spades. After all, his coworker was now a [Magitech Innovator], legendary [Class]. Isaac had expected a [Magitech Engineer], the standard [Enchanter]-[Engineer] hybrid. What he hadn’t accounted for because he hadn’t known it was a thing was the [Class] explicitly gained for being the first person to create things using those runes, seamlessly integrating magic and technology.

Sure, higher rarity [Classes] for people who charged ahead was something Isaac had experience with, for example, his own [Bladewraith] or the [System Researcher] [Class] several of his teammates had, but it was the first time he’d seen the bonus be so obvious.

As Isaac activated the circle, he stood there with a blood-covered Balmung in his right hand, shining like the sun from a fully [Piercing Strike]-filled [Legendary Blow], while a trio of Kabars floated overhead, likewise enchanted and controlled with [Blade Control].

The Arcane Poltergeist emerged from the circle with the terrifying screech customary for this kind of beast, which shifted into a scream of fury as the daggers plunged into the beasts energy-wreathed form, and stuck there.

Angry red energy erupted from the points of impact, burning through its form. It would die in time, but until then the monster was still a massive threat.

Arcs of blue energy burst from the Poltergeist’s body, tearing through the surrounding rock as its [Aura] tried to tear Isaac apart. Unlike the telekinesis, it could affect living tissue, but it was an [Aura]. Using that on Isaac was about as effective as trying to drown a fish.

More worrisome were the rocks being gouged out of his surroundings, but he had a couple of seconds before those became a problem.

Isaac charged and swung Balmung through the monster, the overcharged Level 30 [Skill] not only tearing through its flesh and also rending the spiritual energy that kept the whole affair together.

The energy hurling rocks at him seemed to stutter for a moment, then resumed with a vengeance as the monster threw an unsustainable amount of energy behind the effort. In maybe five minutes, the monster would die from using too much of its energy, but it wouldn’t get that far if Isaac had anything to say about it.

A rock nearly managed to brain him, but Isaac just ducked under it, then slammed a glowing green Balmung into another one, which then splattered against his bare chest like a water balloon.

Sadly, the Poltergeist responded to that by slamming multiple rocks together and trying to force the resulting dust cloud down Isaac’s throat.

But its human foe just phased right through it. The Poltergeist tried to use its force now that Isaac was in a state it could affect, but the [Skill] was only in effect long enough to avoid the attack.

[Wave Charge], [Legendary Blow: Fivefold Piercing Strike]

Another attack later, Isaac had lopped off a massive chunk of ‘healthy’ mass, leaving the monster mostly shaded a sickly crimson.

It tried a variety of different rock attacks in the next twenty seconds or so, but none hit home, and then the monster vanished, the knives that had been stuck inside it clattering to the rock below.

Arcane Poltergeist (Lv. 51) has been slain. 1,200 XP gained

No Aspect, sadly, but he could always try again.

And try again he did, though Isaac first removed all the debris that had accumulated during the first fight, leaving the whole area looking like the surface of the moon.

Another fight, more craters, no Aspect.

And again, over and over again, netting him the XP he’d need to slot the Aspect five times over, except he didn’t have the bloody Aspect.

All he’d earned was some XP and a dire need to have Karl come out here and fix his summoning pit. But in the end, an hour before he had to go back to work, his work finally paid off.

Aspect of the Arcane Poltergeist:

This is the distilled essence of what makes an Arcane Poltergeist an Arcane Poltergeist. Walking through walls as if there were nothing there, a rather loose relationship with gravity, the power to track the living with casual ease, see through walls, or just toss around buildings as if they were mere Legos.

Requirements for Activation:

5,000 XP

Open Aspect Slot

Grants:

+15 Magic Power

One of the following Skills:

Flight of the Poltergeist

Ephemeral Form

Haunting Pursuit

Telekinetic Domain

Ghostly Senses

[Poltergeist’s Flight] became [Flight of the Poltergeist], [Poltergeist’s Shift] became [Ephemeral Form], and he picked [Haunting Pursuit] as his new [Skill]

Haunting Pursuit (epic)

It doesn’t matter where you try to run, where you try to hide, what you try to use as a shield. Nothing will stop the Elder Poltergeist when it has decided to kill you. This is the power of the dead’s unending hatred for the living, the need to tear them apart and bathe in their entrails.

This Skill makes its user aware of all living beings around themselves in a radius of a hundred meters for 5 mana per minute, and can give more precise locations the more mana is invested, up to a maximum of 100 per minute.

One the user has chosen a target, they can spend another 50 points of mana to mark them, gaining the ability to track them precisely so long as they remain withing 10 km, as well as knowing the most direct route to reaching them.

Cost: 5-100 mana per minute for a passive scan, 50 points per mark per hour

In other words, sneaking up on him had just become even more difficult, and only the strongest stealth [Skills] would be able to get unnoticed. Sure, his [Aura] could do much the same job, but that would require him to devote at least a part of its volume for that purpose. As such, this [Skill] would let him focus on other stuff without sacrificing his situational awareness and ensure he didn’t have to spend precious time reading tracks if he was chasing after someone.

Of course, his existing [Skills] got some nice upgrades as well.

Ephemeral Form (epic)

Walls, fortresses, even bunkers that sit at the heart of a mountain, none of these can stop an Ephemeral being. The only thing able to damage such a being is raw mana or Skills fueled by it.

But transforming would be rather risky if an errant Spell would tear through them, wouldn’t it? That’s why true powerhouses among the Ephemeral are able to spend additional mana to reinforce their bodies and mitigate said vulnerability to some degree.

While shifted, the user of this Skill can choose to treat objects as physical and interact with them normally or treat them as though they didn’t exist.

Cost: 10 mana for activation, 5 mana per second of upkeep, upkeep can be increased up to 50 mana per second to resist foreign mana

Overall, this was just a basic upgrade and reduced some of its weaknesses, but it was still really nice to have.

Flight of the Poltergeist (epic)

Once you are dead, you are free. Free from responsibilities, free from death, free from gravity.

With this Skill, you gain a Poltergeist’s ability to nullify gravity and take to the air, nullify the effect of wind and air resistance to avoid being blown away like a leaf in a hurricane by the slightest breeze and start to accelerate yourself at a constant rate of 1 m/s^2 for a maximum speed of 150 m/s.

Cost: 1 mana per second per active effect (air resistance nullification, gravity nullification or telekinetic self-acceleration)

On the other hand, [Flight of the Poltergeist] was a great upgrade because it finally granted him true flight, as opposed to his old method of reducing the effect of gravity upon himself to nothing, then flinging himself all over the place by kicking off his floating blades. Sure, he could run faster than the top speed of the [Skill], but there was a reason ‘as the crow flies’ was how the optimum path was described. Not having to phase through buildings was also easier on his mana pool. And lastly, this method made carrying passengers far easier, so his sisters were sure to be delighted.

But Isaac still had a little more time before he had to go to work, so he chose to use it to summon the second kind of monster he now felt comfortable fighting. A Space Elemental.

Isaac was already at a Level where a mid-range Tier 6 monster shouldn’t have been a problem, but it was a fucking Space Elemental. Those were a class of their own to anyone whose powerset wasn’t a direct counter to their abilities. Sadly, these cores were also a necessary part of many important things like storage space and Hunting Grounds.

Hell, he could summon a Void Island, a vast and permanent extradimensional space from the Rewards section of the summoning tab. There were sadly a whole host of materials that he couldn’t grab yet and the mana cost for that thing was ludicrous beyond belief, but it wouldn’t hurt to stock up on these things now. When they actually started using them, their supply would disappear like a pile of snow his by a flamethrower.

As he once again cleaned up his space, Isaac also wiped the blood from his weapon and healed the wounds it had come from. Replenishing the blood itself took a bit longer, but even that wasn’t overly difficult, not with his manapool and the power of his regeneration.

The Space Elemental erupted from the summoning circle like a geyser, power flooding the while area and turning it into a Lovecraftian nightmare of warped space. Even as random jagged chunks of rock face were suddenly far closer than they’d been a millisecond earlier, a terrifying [Aura] began to rip at Isaac, trying to shift his muscles out of place, making them impossible to use. He blocked it for the most part, but it still affected him.

[True Cut: Damage Spatial Warp]

Even slightly dinging the mess the local area had become cost over a thousand mana, but Isaac didn’t have to do anything more to win.

And then the whole effect disappeared as though a switch had been flipped, the monster slain by one of the countless blades Isaac had scattered behind it and called towards him the moment the monster had appeared.

A large core lay there, swirling with colors that moved in ways that were liable to cause nausea in even him if he closely examined them for too long. It went into storage, the mess was cleaned up, and the area reset for the next fight. Space Elementals were good XP and his next goal was hitting Level 68 and gaining access to [Legacy of a True Warrior].

And all the while, he’d be writing papers, powering up his assistants and arranging for them to officially break into the seventh Tier of monsters … which would be a hard sell to all involved. It was rather apparent to people who researched the topic that the military forces that had been acting as an emergency fallback option would barely be effective against that caliber of foe.

But mostly, he’d be power levelling though.

***

And then, eventually, finally, he’d unlocked what he wanted. It had taken him weeks, but he’d gained the Levels to be able to purchase the [Skill]. One point for each Level-up combined with the vastly increased XP cost per Level had made this a very lengthy process.

On the other hand, the twenty Stat points per Level during the third Evolution were much more palatable than the reduced number of [Skill] points. Isaac had been able to invest 70 points into both Magic Regeneration and Perception, then tossed another 50 into Agility and the last 10 into Strength. His Status was looking fine.

Name: Isaac Thoma

Class: Hildebrand’s Heir

Species: High Human

Level: 68

XP: 17/34,500

Health Status: Healthy

Mana: 1,350/1,350

Stats

Fortitude

100

Perception

250

Strength

110

Agility

250

Magic Power

135

Magic Regeneration

250

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 XXI

The Chosen Weapon XXVI

I Am The Sword IX

Grave of Swords XIII

Armory of Ancient Times X

Legacy of a True Warrior I

Skills

Hundred Faces XXIV

Stealth XXVIII

Power Strike XXIX

Piercing Strike XXX

Sundering Strike XXVII

Blades XXVII

Sneak XXVII

Sweeping Strike XV

Far Strike XXVI

Manifold Strike XIX

Hunter’s Gaze XXIX

Phantom Step XIX

Unknown Fear XIX

Bestial Regeneration XXV

Undying Focus XXI

Tools of Terror XIX

Fleeting Presence XIV

Crippling Blow XII

Absolute Blade Mastery XIII

Compounded Impact XV

True Cut VII

Legendary Blow VII

General Skills

Gralloch XI

Alchemy XII

Death’s Embrace V

Bloodline of the Survivor (Empower Relatives)

Aspects

Aspect Skills

Arcane Poltergeist (3 stack)

Flight of the Poltergeist

Ephemeral Form

Haunting Pursuit

Greater Hydra (3 stack)

Hydra’s Regeneration

Redundant Organs

Ignore Injury

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

Acid Drake

Drake’s Heart

Least Demon Lord (2 Stack)

Moment of Immortality

Grand Hellflame

And yet, it was the new [Skill] that would make the biggest difference in the end.

Legacy of a True Warrior (legendary)

Once upon a time, there was a man. A warrior, teacher to a legendary king, and his companion in all his adventures. And now, you hold that man’s legacy. His knowledge, his skills, his experience in combat both figurative and literal.

But even though Hildebrand’s personal achievements are hardly small, they pale in comparison to what his student achieved. As such, the core of this inheritance is all about training others.

Anyone you train will pick up all lessons at a vastly accelerated pace, a pace that will increase even further if the training is related to knightly endeavors, such as horse riding, medieval politics, or combat with traditional weapons (sword/axe/bow/spear).

But that is only the beginning of what you are now capable of. You may now impart the following Skills onto your students (these are weaker versions of your Class Skills, they can only be taught if you have the Skill yourself):

-Knightly Discipline (downgrade from Knightly Leader, enhances group coordination)

-Epic Blow (downgraded from Legendary Blow, allows the stacking of multiple identical Strike/Shot/Blows)

-Phantom Armor (downgrade from Fully Geared, allows for the storage of a single set of armor in an extradimensional space)

-Veteran’s Teachings (downgrade from Expert’s Knowledge, grants overall knowledge and the occasional flash of insight)

You may only teach 5 Skills per week, the number increases by one per Level in Legacy of a True Warrior.

Skills taught this week 0/6

Time to put some coworkers and subordinates through the training from hell.