《Apocalypse Redux (all books currently on Amazon, sequel series in the works)》 Prologue ¡°Well, at least the end is somewhat ironic.¡± Isaac commented as he gazed out across the swarming mass of beasts below. ¡°Even in a world of monsters and demons, it was humanity that did itself in.¡± ¡°I¡¯m glad that you can see the humor in this.¡± a voice rang out from behind him ¡°Not. Seriously, the world is ending and you¡¯re cracking jokes?¡± ¡°The world already ended. If nothing else, because the only two humans left in the world are us two men. When we die, so does humanity.¡± Isaac replied, sword jumping from his sheath for an instant so brief that a pre-[System] human wouldn¡¯t have even been able to see him move, then re-sheathed it just as quickly. An arc of power had burst from the sword during that single swing and hit the countless beasts milling around below like divine judgement, shearing through a countless number them. Yet there were so many more, assailing the last bastion of mankind. A vast castle wrought from the stone below, reinforced by the powers of countless [Architects], [Geomancers], and more. Once, it had been used as the command and control center for all of Europe. But then humanity had begun losing and losing hard. Now, there were just the two of them left here, and perhaps one or two others somewhere on the planet, though they hadn¡¯t heard anything from them. ¡°And that means you get to laugh about this?¡± Kade asked, stepping up next to Isaac. ¡°When else am I going to look back on my life and laugh at all the mistakes, other than right before its end? This isn¡¯t funny in the slightest, but I refuse to go to my death depressed if I can help it.¡± he replied, another flick of the sword annihilating the beginnings of a living rampart that threatened to spill into the inner courtyard. None of these weaklings could truly threaten either of them, but they weren¡¯t the problem. They hadn¡¯t been for half a decade. That dubious honor went to the champions, the commanders, [Demon Lords] and [World Bosses]. Yet if too many of those things got in, even this place would finally fall, even though it had done so for all practical intents and purposes. ¡°[Final Bastion].¡± Kade said, laying his hand on one of the crenelations ¡°There, that should hold them for a bit.¡± ¡°Still won¡¯t drop the habit of saying your [Skills] out loud when stealth isn¡¯t required?¡± Isaac teased even as every beast currently touching the walls was knocked away with enough force to turn them into paste. Kade¡¯s reply was just a flat stare. ¡°Anyway, about what¡¯s so funny. For one, the Karen¡¯s were right. DnD and all that truly was the devils work, what with the whole ¡®world turns into a video game and suddenly everyone is summoning monsters to fight¡¯ thing.¡± Isaac shook his head ¡°But we made it to the top, didn¡¯t we? Took their power, summoned primordial beasts only for them to die moments later, until we reached the peak of what was possible. If only everyone else had been as careful ¡­¡± That had been the truly insidious part of the [System]. A couple of years after Initialization, an entire genre of books had become truly popular, one that involved Systems descending on the planet and bringing countless monsters, turning the world into a hellhole. But theirs hadn¡¯t, it had merely provided the means of creating them. Initially, people had been careful, generally only summoning what they could handle. And the few times the creatures had been too powerful, everyone nearby with any measure of combat power had dogpiled on the beast until it was gone. Nations had experimented with the stronger beasts, but they¡¯d also taken adequate precautions, at least for the most part. At least fifty [Raid Bosses] had apparently been nuked in the Nevada desert by the US army once it was determined that they were too powerful to beat directly. It had ruined any chance of gaining XP from them, but it also succeeded at stopping them cold. Eventually, however, people grew too strong for the weaker beast to push them further, and stronger ones had been summoned. And stronger ones still, more and more escaping until eventually they congregated and made summonings of their own. From there on, humanity had been crushed under an ever-escalating tide of monsters. ¡°Humans aren¡¯t cautious. Never have been, at least not as a whole. We¡¯re the monkeys who left the safety of the trees for the ground and never looked back. We created sharpened metal to stab each other with, gunpowder, and eventually even lit off a nuke to see what would happen despite one of the possible outcomes being lighting the atmosphere on fire and killing us all.¡± Kade informed him, hints of pride and sorrow swinging in his tone. ¡°Ha, too true.¡± Isaac barked a laugh. ¡°¡­ your humor is too fucking dark.¡± Kade sighed ¡°I worry about you, sometimes.¡± ¡°Eh, what other kind is there? Come on, live a little. The last two peo- ¡­¡± Isaac started, but was interrupted. ¡°Three.¡± They both whirled around to see a third man standing there in incredibly dirty clothing that might have once been one of the [Mage¡¯s] robes that had come into style three years after the Initialization. ¡°Mark?¡± Kade was the first to ask. ¡°Who else?¡± Mark shrugged as he walked over to them. ¡°Where the hell have you been? We thought you died last week, during the fall of Rome?¡± Isaac exclaimed. ¡°Making my way here. I''m the last one, everyone else died. Everywhere. [Scry] shows that the three of us are all that remains of mankind. Anyway, I¡¯m not staying long. There¡¯s a [Demon Lord] a few kilometers to the west and I¡¯m off to kick it in the unmentionables. There is literally no point in protecting this place anymore.¡± he said fatalistically. ¡°The world¡¯s ended, you can say ¡®balls¡¯.¡± Isaac informed him in a mock-serious tone. ¡°Fine, fine, I want to kick a [Demon Lord] in the balls before I die, alright?¡± Mark shot him a dark smile. ¡°I think that is something we¡¯d all have liked to do.¡± Kade nodded. ¡°So what do you say, old friends? Shall we show those demonic bastards just what humanity is capable of, one final time?¡± Isaac asked, feeling the dying embers inside him reignite a little. Standing here on these battlements for the last month, defending a lifeless fortress and cracking dark jokes had been the most depressing of his life. This, right here, was how he¡¯d now decided to go out. Not finally being swamped by the hordes of fodder below, suicide, or maybe overeating by devouring all the food still left in the stores below. ¡°Oh, what the hell. All for one, one for all, everyone gets a pound of flesh from the bastard.¡± Kade grumbled, heaving himself over the wall. He fell like a literal meteor, not only utterly pulverizing the demonic beasts he landed on, but unleashing a shockwave that destroyed hundreds more. Isaac took a more graceful method of descent, likewise jumping over the edge but activating [Featherfall] a split second before the impact to land lightly on the head of a hellhound. Two swings of his sword unleashed two immense crescents of energy and cleared the space around himself with contemptuous ease. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Alright you lily-livered, yellow bellied, craven snotbags. C¡¯mere. [Nexus of Conflict]¡± Kade bellowed, his voice echoing across the battlefield like the crack of thunder. The taunting [Skill] drew the attention of every beast within a kilometer of him. An immense thunderstorm brewed in a matter of seconds as Mark, the [Archmage of the Tempest] used his own power and began to lash out at the mass below. Isaac, meanwhile, just charged through the ranks, swinging his sword in halfmoon arcs, unleashing crescent waves of energy whenever his mana topped up, tearing through them like a reaper through wheat. Out in the distance, a figure loomed. Deep crimson skin, bull¡¯s horns reaching towards the sky, claws of solid obsidian extending from powerful digits. A champion, a [Raid Boss] at the very least. [Spectral Charge], [Extended Blade], [Sacrificial Strike] A single heartbeat later, Isaac turned into a ghost that flashed forwards, blade perpendicular to the motion and extended almost a hundred meters as it passed cleanly through the bodies. For a second or so, it seemed like nothing had happened, but then a cut began to appear in slow motion on every creature struck, as if an invisible sword was slowly cleaving them in twain along the line where the spectral sword had passed through. Isaac raised the blade in hand and pointed it at the looming champion. [Blade Javelin], [Sacrificial Empowerment] Angry red runes streamed from the unnatural cuts on his victims as the slow motion wounds suddenly completed in one heartbeat. The next, they flew towards his sword that had already been enveloped by the grey sheen of the other [Skill] and merged with it. A basic, mana based [Skill] to throw a sword, boosted to insane heights by the deaths of countless monsters sent the weapon hurtling forward as if flung by a titan of old and struck the Demon¡¯s chest like the fist of an angry god. Not even that kind of beast could survive having half its torso simply vanish. All it took to get his weapon back was a thought, the soulbound weapon vanishing and rematerializing in his right hand three seconds later. Even bare handed, Isaac killed hundreds of enemies in that time with his bare fists. Punches shattered skulls with such force that the bone fragments shredded their allies behind them, limbs flew and tripped up those who still had the guts to charge ¡­ The carnage continued on in that vein for hours, the three of them continuing to fight their way through the horde. Two more [Raid Bosses] appeared and two more [Raid Bosses] were felled, too weak to put up much of a resistance. If this kind of strength had been held by mankind¡¯s champions just a mere couple of years ago, they might have been able to beat back the encroaching hordes. As the final [Raid Boss] fell, the teeming mass of monsters fell away and returned to the castle. With the controlling intelligences dead and the humans no longer near the target they¡¯d been ordered to attack, they chose to go for the building. They crested the final hill a minute later to see the monstrous [Demon Lord] before them, over a thousand attendants between them and him. ¡°Hey, ugly!¡± Mark called ¡°Eat voltage!¡± A bolt of lightning as thick as the trunk of a giant redwood slammed into the chest of the [Demon Lord] and sent him stumbling backwards, roaring in pain. ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Kade bellowed and charged. Isaac just melted into the shadows and popped up next to their foe¡¯s foot a moment later, hamstringing him with a quick cut. A fist the size of a compact car slammed down with earth shaking force a moment later, but Isaac wasn¡¯t there anymore, having vanished into the crowd of attendants. His heart sang as he soared between them, marking them with [Sacrificial Strike] in preparation for unleashing a devastating attack. For all the seriousness, for all the finality of this fight, it felt good to cut loose against a worthy target again. To fight the good fight even if all they could achieve was one final fuck you to the monsters that had ended humanity. They fought the beast for hours on end, until eventually, disaster struck. A hurled boulder the size of a tank smashed Mark out of the air and the demon was there to crush him an instant later. Even with that small victory, however, things weren¡¯t looking good for it. One arm hung limply, most of the flesh at the shoulder just plain gone, it limped from where Isaac had hamstrung it at the beginning of the fight and it was utterly covered in second and third degree burns. Kade arrived to pummel it, but was grabbed for the first time since combat started. Hellfire pooled in the palm of the hand that held him and began to burn. But even with every iota of energy and attention devoted to the task, even a [Demon Lord] couldn¡¯t kill the world¡¯s greatest tank so quickly. Ten seconds was all it took. Now that he wasn¡¯t forced to constantly dodge or readjust his aim as the demon did, Isaac could land devastating strikes that annihilated vital organs and crippled its movement. The great beast fell, the first of its kind to be defeated by human hands. But he barely cared about that anymore as he scrambled over to the hand that had held his friend. A stench like burning pork wafted up from a charred black mass that lay in the demon¡¯s palm. ¡°Hey Kade, we did it.¡± Isaac whispered as he caught sight of the person who¡¯d been with him for the last four years ¡°We got one.¡± There was no response. Blade held loosely in his hand, Isaac turned back to the place the demon had stood at the beginning, where a portal now hung. ¡°You know what, old friend?¡± he whispered, his voice breaking ¡°I¡¯m going see how much damage I can do to their world. Real scientific, real slow, bit by fucking bit.¡± The mask of levity dropped off his face as he walked closer. It had been his shield for so long, taking him through issues even before the Initialization. As the state of the world had grown darker, so had his humor. But now, there was no one left. No one but him. No one to perform for, no one to cheer up, no one to laugh with him. ¡°[Manifold Blade Empowerment], [Piercing Strike], [Sweeping Strike], [Power Strike], [Sundering Strike], [Strike of Desolation], [Curse of Ruination].¡± he whispered ¡°This is for you, Kade. I¡¯m going to make them hurt.¡± ¡°Ahem, you are, of course, free to do that. But perhaps, might I offer an alternative?¡± a cultured voice called out from behind him, causing Isaac to whirl around, ready to bisect the speaker with the manifold [Skills] layered onto the blade. When he saw who¡¯d said that, however, he froze. ¡°Janus?¡± The god of doorways was one of the mere handful of deities that humans knew for a fact were real as they actually contacted humanity directly on a handful of occasions. ¡°In the flesh.¡± the god gestured at himself. He wore a perfectly normal toga, appearing like an ordinary human from neck down. His head, on the other hand, had two faces, one over each shoulder and facing off to the side, though he could likely still see what was in front of his body. ¡°How much do you know about the rules of deities meddling in the affairs of mortals?¡± Janus asked, jumping straight into whatever topic he wanted to talk about. ¡°Any meddling will allow the other side to meddle to an equal degree, continued meddling without the other side having balanced the scales with interventions of their own becomes exponentially harder.¡± Isaac quoted from memory. That explanation had been given countless times when people had demanded help from the ostensible ¡°good¡± gods. Whatever they did to improve humanity¡¯s lot, the ¡°dark¡± gods would be given the chance to turn it into a monkey¡¯s paw. Supposedly, that had been what had happened with the [System]. One side had created it to allow humanity to grow while the other had added the monster summoning power that had created this whole mess. ¡°So, you¡¯re willing to try to interfere again?¡± Isaac asked, extremely skeptical. He wasn¡¯t sure if things could somehow get worse than mankind¡¯s extinction, but it they could ¡­ ¡°Yes. Though in this case, our meddling happened a long time ago, you¡¯re just reaping the rewards. The dark gods nudged things ever so slightly towards the apocalypse by screwing with a handful of key people, so we made our own alterations, similarly minute. Those portals right there, they allow a single person to jump back to the beginning a single time, if the guardian had been defeated and they are the last human on the planet. With their changes so minute, ours couldn¡¯t be any bigger and adding a bunch of prerequisites was a good way to make that happen.¡± Janus explained. Isaac¡¯s sword slipped from a nerveless hand, which he then raised to point at the god. ¡°You ¡­ you¡¯re ¡­ you have to be ¡­ that can¡¯t be true.¡± he laughed bitterly, though the sound contained a hint of insanity that sent shivers down his spine ¡°If you could time travel, then how could you let any of this happen?¡± ¡°And what do you think would happen if even one enemy god survived past such an attack? They¡¯d have free rein to travel themselves. It is far too risky. Even sending a mortal might be devastating. Yet this specific situation, a tiny tweak that gives you a final chance in the remote possibility that someone fulfilled the requirements, that is doable. So, Isaac Thoma, will you do your damndest to save the world?¡± Janus asked. ¡°I ¡­ I still think you¡¯re crazy. But what the hell, what do I have to lose?¡± Isaac said, half to himself, half to the god. Janus clapped his hands and the portal shifted, turning from a wall of white mist into a solid sheet of blue light. ¡°Now, walk through the portal.¡± Every step Isaac took felt like he was walking to his own execution, yet he never stopped. A chance to redo everything, try to save everyone, even if he wasn¡¯t sure this whole thing wasn¡¯t the world¡¯s cruelest prank. A final step took him through the portal, which felt like falling into a freezing lake. ¡®Ding! Isaac woke with a start, sitting bolt upright in his bed, a blue box hovering in front of him.
Greetings, Isaac Thoma. Welcome to the System. Would you like to select [Office Drone] as your class?
Chapter 1: Skill Selection Yeah, nope. While the [Office Drone] was quite a bit stronger than the rather insulting name might indicate, granting [Skills] that boosted intelligence and even percentage based boosts if one was told to do something, it was far from fantastic. Mind you, it didn¡¯t even have to be a superior who gave the order. A simple ¡°Mate, do you think we should kill that monster?¡¯ ¡®Yep.¡± was enough to grant a ten percent boost to all stats with the right build. But at the end of the day, a hidden powerful side to that class wasn¡¯t enough to make Isaac choose it, especially not with the knowledge he now had. ¡°Select [Rogue].¡± Isaac ordered, the combination of a verbal order and proper intent behind the words making the [System] obey. Figuring out how to properly command the entire interface was something that took most people at least a few minutes to figure out. Even as he flicked the entirety of the screen that had just popped up in his vision of to the side, Isaac got dressed, then grabbed his phone, keys and wallet from his bedside table. Right now, people all over the world would be startled as that prompt appeared in their vision. For those in Germany and the rest of the Central European Time Zone, it was currently 7 am and a lot of people would still either be in bed or still waking up, while others were going along with their normal days or even still asleep. The initial reactions would be shock, disbelief, and then, the panic would start. Mad rushes to the supermarket, desperate fights over high calorie easy to keep foods such as rice, flour and oil. Also, for some reason, toilet paper. To get stronger quickly and prepare for the incoming issues, he needed plenty of resources no normal person just happened to have on hand, himself included. It would be for the best to get them as quickly as possible, before everyone else fully recognized the breadth of this event and flooded any and all shops in preparation for the apocalypse. Isaac, of course, knew that the true apocalypse wouldn¡¯t happen for a few more years. Right now, however, there would be chaos for around a week until things calmed back down and he knew he had the food to last that time. Eating nothing but rice, beans and basic bread made from nothing but flour, water and baking soda wouldn¡¯t be fun, but It would keep him alive. It had taken him all of forty seconds to get ready and leave the apartment, passing the mirror in the hallway once he¡¯d locked the door. An unfamiliar face stared back at him. The green eyes were the same, as was the deep black hair, but everything else seemed staggeringly unfamiliar. He was a bit heavier than he had been in the, er, future, not overweight, but still noticeable. His face also lacked the deep frown lines, worn into his face through a decade of combat. Once outside, Isaac hurried to the hardware store, seeing only a handful of other people outside, looking harried and swiping at the air. Yes, smacking the illusionary projection of the [System] interface was a perfectly fine method of using it, but it also made one look a little silly. Isaac knew the way to the hardware store and followed it from memory, allowing him to use the Interface via mental control without running the risk of going the wrong way.
Name: Isaac Thoma
Class: Rogue Species: Human
Level: 0 XP: 0/100
Health Status: Healthy Mana: 110/110
Stats
Fortitude 11 Perception 9
Strength 9 Agility 10
Magic Power 11 Magic Regeneration 10
Free Points: 0 Stat, 5 Skill
Skills
It was the same interface he¡¯d always had, though he was a little dismayed at the low stats. Even his dump Stats had been in the low hundreds during the final battle, but now he was back in the body of an ordinary human, with above average Magic Power and Fortitude, but below average Perception and Strength, with ten being the average across the entirety of the human race. Seeing as he was still at Level 0, he had not yet received any Stat points. Only the five Skill points he¡¯d received for choosing a [Class] were available. [Skills] were graded on a ranking from common, uncommon, rare, epic and finally legendary, costing one to five points to purchase. [Rogue], being a common rarity starter [Class], only had a mere handful of higher rarity [Skills], but those weren¡¯t what he needed. Ultimately, each [Class] had some basic requirements. [Rogue] required a very basic understanding of how to use a knife and how to be sneaky, also on a very basic level. [Healers] needed a decent understanding of the human body, [Mages] needed some grounding in the sciences related to their type of magic, and so on. Once one upgraded the [Class] at Level 10, his knowledge, [Skills] and the things he¡¯d achieved would be taken into account when his options were generated. As for what [Skills] Isaac wanted, it hadn¡¯t taken him all that long to choose.
Hundred Faces (common) Ultimately, even the greatest criminal is unable to completely avoid being seen. But what is seen doesn¡¯t have to be the user¡¯s true face. This skill allows the user to adjust their face, within reason, to allow for some degree of anonymity. Cost: 30 mana per minute while adjusting
It was a rather basic disguise [Skill], but it might be needed sooner rather than later. Getting those supplies was important and if whoever was running the store at the moment had run off, he might have to break in. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Isaac pulled up his hood to ensure that his shifting face wasn¡¯t seen by any passersby or cameras that might be around. As for getting into the store, smashing the main window was the only real viable option, time wise. Isaac was actually rather good at picking locks, but chances were he¡¯d need an actual set of picks to crack whatever the store¡¯s main door used. Not having used a mirror for this, the end result was likely going to look extremely weird, but he¡¯d used the [Skill] often enough in the future ¡­ calling it the future was just plain weird, he realized with a start. The future was what was going to happen. Referring to the hell he¡¯d just escaped from as the future made it feel predetermined, after a fashion. It reminded him of those old Terminator movies, if he was honest. The future you were from was shit and anything you did here wasn¡¯t going to make it any less shit, only ensure that there were still humans out there to complain about how shit it was. Damn, that was depressing. Anyway, he¡¯d used that [Skill] aplenty in that other timeline and could judge his appearance fairly well through the basic feedback it granted the user. He wouldn¡¯t be winning any beauty contests like that, hell, a hundred years ago he might even have ended up in one of those barbaric freak shows. But as long as the end result didn¡¯t look like him, that was fine. And now, on to picking the rest of his [Skills].
Stealth (common) Use magic to shield the user¡¯s form from visual inspection, as well as muffling noise created by the user. Quality of shielding will increase at higher levels. Cost: 1 mana/sec
Piercing Strike (common) User''s weapon is covered with energy, increasing its ability to penetrate armor. This effect lasts for a single strike. Should the weapon in question be stuck within an opponent, the effect will last for .5 sec, allowing for removal of weapon or further cutting. Cost: 10 mana per strike
Sundering Strike (common) User¡¯s next strike will weaken the targets armor around the point of impact. This damage is permanent until it is fixed/healed. This effect can be stacked until the armor is destroyed. Cost: 12 mana per strike
Power Strike (common) User¡¯s next blow will strike with as much force as though the user¡¯s strength stat were 50%+1n% where n equals skill level higher. Cost: 12 mana per strike, low stamina drain
In essence, he¡¯d combine the active [Skill] [Stealth] to fade from sight and using the knowledge about how to be stealthy he¡¯d gained in the other timeline to make sure he didn¡¯t disturb anything in his surroundings. There was also a [Sneak] [Skill] that granted knowledge of how to properly sneak around, but that could be earned through effort. [Skills] that were also skills could be gained with the prerequisite knowledge, effort and the desire to actually get it, while [Skills] that produced actual preternatural effects almost always needed to be bought with Skill points. He¡¯d do the same to get the [Knives] [Skill] and then train them both up rather quickly thanks to his immense pool of knowledge. The rest of his [Skills] were used to modify how his weapons hit his enemies, from tearing through armor to permanently weakening said armor. By using multiple such [Skills] concurrently, he could even eventually gain the [Manifold Strike] [Skill], which he¡¯d eventually upgraded to [Manifold Blade Empowerment]. In fact, now that he didn¡¯t have anything better to do as he headed to the store, he attempted to carefully place his feet to produce minimal noise. It took all of the remaining walk to the store, but eventually, the prompt he¡¯d been waiting for popped up.
Skill earned: Sneak (common) Grants user basic knowledge of how to move stealthily, from avoiding making noise to reducing visibility. Higher levels of this Skill will allow the user to have an overall lessened impact on the world at large, to the point of near complete invisibility.
The description on that [Skill] was both exaggerated quite a bit and underselling it to an insane degree. If he could train it up high enough, then he¡¯d become a hole in the world, able to dance through a crowded mall in his underwear and no one taking notice, but a sufficiently high Perception stat could pretty much nullify its effect. Thankfully, the hardware store was open and empty. It had, after all, opened mere minutes ago and people tended to generally be more concerned with food at times of crisis, rather than the tools needed for survival. This place would get swarmed soon, but for now, Isaac had the run of the store. He knew what to buy from memory, having summoned the beasts he wanted to summon countless times before. He also needed a proper knife to fight with. No German hardware store he knew of sold proper combat or hunting knifes, but one of the larger ones meant for wilderness survival should do just fine while he ordered a proper one from Amazon. So he grabbed the biggest one he could find, some tools to round out the small toolkit he had in his apartment, chalk, rock salt and semiprecious stones. Also, he got some more generic items such as boxes of screws and the like. If he left this place with nothing except what people would soon be able to recognize as summoning materials, then that might rouse some suspicion. After all, what kind of person would know to buy these things a quarter of an hour after the information on what they were used for was released, buried under an encyclopedia¡¯s worth of other information? Accounts of what certain standout powerful people had done this day would become public in a couple of years, as well as statistics on just how many people had reacted in what way. Some people had panicked, others had ignored the weird floating boxes, thinking they were drunk, high, or both. And then, there had been the mere handful that had truly embraced the [System], choosing to delve deeply into its mysteries, gaining power and skill beyond what even the greatest of man would have been able to achieve before its advent. Yet even those people would not have been able to read far enough ahead to already know all of this. Therefore, Isaac walked up to the counter with only about half the items in his cart being what he actually needed, and most of those having myriad uses besides summoning. ¡°Good morning.¡± he greeted the cashier once he¡¯d hefted the goods onto the counter, as well as a couple of bags so he could actually carry this stuff home with him. ¡°Morning.¡± the man was a bit on the older side, looking at him with a bit of a side-eye. ¡°Interesting day so far, isn¡¯t it?¡± Isaac asked, seemingly leaving it open as to what he was talking about. It made it sound like he wasn¡¯t actually sure the weird thing in front of him was actually real, asking the other person to confirm that they¡¯d seen said thing as well without outright stating he¡¯d seen something that was likely a hallucination. ¡°I suppose that¡¯s one way to put it. Scared the hell out of a lot of people. I¡¯m actually the manager here and the only reason I¡¯m working the registers is because everyone else is trying to call their families or something.¡± the apparent manager replied, far less guarded than Isaac had been. ¡°Yeah, phone lines are thoroughly blocked. There isn¡¯t much I can do about anything, so I just decided to say ¡®fuck it¡¯ and go on with my day.¡± Isaac shrugged. A lot of the people panicking had tried to contact friends and family, to see if they were alright or maybe do a sanity check, subsequently blocking the phone lines quite thoroughly. In his first life, Isaac had been one of them, stuck on his phone for hours until he¡¯d finally gotten through to his parents. Now that he knew he wouldn¡¯t get through anyway and that they¡¯d be fine regardless, he didn¡¯t bother to try and wouldn¡¯t do for quite some time. ¡°That¡¯s probably one of the biggest points in favor of the idea that all of this is real, isn¡¯t it?¡± the manager asked ¡°What else could get literally everyone to start using their phones at the same time?¡± ¡°What indeed? But life goes on and quite honestly, I don¡¯t think how I act right now will massively change things for the better or worse.¡± Isaac shrugged, paying in cash, silently glad for his habit of paying for everything without the use of a card when he bought things in person. ¡°This is going to be a mess for someone way above both our heads to sort out, that¡¯s for certain.¡± the manager sighed. ¡°Hope you have a better day than I¡¯m having right now.¡± ¡°Have a nice day.¡± Isaac bid him goodbye and left the hardware store. ¡­ and walked straight into utter pandemonium. Just from where he stood outside the hardware store, there was at least one car crash, two broken windows, one burning trash can and more panicking people than he cared to count. Yep, that was what people did when confronted with something upsetting and world-changing. Panic. Not everyone, mind you, but enough to cause ¡­ this. Of course, the people who were panicking the most were those who were familiar with the heretofore fairly unknown genre of LitRPG, where life became a video game. Yet in the next couple of years, it would soar in popularity given how similar it was to how real life had become. The Apocalyptic LitRPG genre in particular had started being used as philosophical thought pieces based on what could have happened, seeing as they tended to be a bit more on the, well, apocalyptic side of things. And who better to imagine just how bad people gaining video game powers could be than those who had read hundreds or even thousands of pages of books related to that topic? As he walked home, Isaac pulled the purchased knife from its sheath and placed it on his belt. From then on, he began to mentally go through how he could use this weapon. How to draw it in several different situations, where to target a multitude of different enemy types, how to use his [Skills] to compliment this fighting style. Ordinarily, he¡¯d be going through the motions as he did that, but waving around a knife in public was rather frowned upon and would continue to be so. Isaac could play around with it in his apartment, later. More chaos greeted him on the short walk and someone was even already drawing graffiti about the end of times on a nearby wall. All of this would calm down in a week, when it became clear there was no other shoe to drop. Of course, it did drop, but not in the foreseeable future. Once in his apartment, Isaac slammed the door shut and locked it behind him, set down his bags and drew his knife.
Skill earned: Knives (common) Grants user basic knowledge of using knives, including throwing and non-combat applications. All knives are slightly reinforced and can take more damage.
Perfect. Now, all he needed to do was summon eldritch horrors from outside of normal time and space, kill them by the hundreds and begin to walk the road to power. Chapter 2: Summoning and Power Metal
Summoning List (Ephemeral)
Name Material Cost Mana Cost
Ghost Tier 1 Circle, Rock Salt 10
Apparition Tier 1 Circle, Rock Salt 25
Spirit Tier 2 Circle, Rock Salt, Iron Shavings 50
Phantom Tier 2 Circle, Rock Salt, Iron Shavings 75
Specter Tier 3 Circle, Rock Salt, Iron Shavings, Candles 100
Wraith Tier 4 Circle, Rock Salt, Iron Shavings, Candles, String 150
Poltergeist Tier 5 Circle, Rock Salt, Iron Shavings, Candles, Blood 250
¡­
The list of creatures he could summon was immense, though only five were currently within his mana capacity. Each summon required a summoning circle on the ground, unified across all types of creatures that could be summoned. Those went all the way up to Tier 10 and in the other timeline, he¡¯d had a series of metal plates with each one carved into it to be used at will. For now, however, all he needed was a Tier 3 Circle. And as for why he was going to focus on Ephemeral Type summonings for a bit, there was a rather obvious reason. Collateral Damage. Those kinds of entities directly struck at the living, often through solid objects, without destroying the battleground. In other words, perfect for summoning directly into his apartment. Of course, the stronger ones, especially Poltergeists could easily toss around furniture and often did so to devastating effect, but Isaac had neither the inclination nor the mana pool for that. So, he went to work on the linoleum floor of this living room, laying out the circle in duct tape. Sturdy enough to survive for quite some time, yet still possible to remove them. Cleaning it up would be a pain in the ass as an unfortunate idea in his younger days had forced him to learn, but still doable in a reasonable timeframe. The [System] provided him with the design of the circle as a matter of course, even helpfully overlaying it into the floor he was working on, though Isaac didn¡¯t need it anymore. He still used it, of course, seeing as any mistakes would be a serious pain to correct. It took him around twenty minutes, but then he was done. Now, it was time. Isaac piled the rock salt into the circle, grabbed a file and a piece of iron to add the iron shavings and ended the whole thing by placing three candles on the outside of the circle. ¡°Being from beyond the veil, I call to you. Specter, I summon thee.¡± The chant for creatures this weak wasn¡¯t particularly long, mostly just necessary to signify intent. Isaac rubbed his temples as he felt a slight headache coming on. He¡¯d just used up almost the entirety of his mana pool, but the summoning was complete. All he had to do now was activate the circle to actually call the creature here. He¡¯d do that only in half an hour, when all his mana had regenerated. The calculation for that was rather simple, one regained the equivalent of ones mana regen stat, multiplied by ten, over half an hour, which came out to exactly 100 points for him. Isaac didn¡¯t sit idle during this time, however. He grabbed his knife, some disinfectant from a first aid kit and a band aid. The mechanics of fighting Ephemeral type enemies were rather simple. Ordinary, mundane objects couldn¡¯t touch them, let alone hurt them. Some of the beings did become solid for a split second to land blows of their own, but even then, only the parts it actually used to attack could be damaged. Therefore, a different kind of attack was needed. Magic worked well enough, as did [Skills] that required mana to activate, but that would burn through his reserves in short order and he needed to kill as many of these things as he could in a day. Thankfully, there was also the option of enchanting his ¡°weapon¡±. True enchantments might require rare components, specialized [Classes] and a fuckton of mana, but there were several temporary ones that should work just fine. Isaac quickly disinfected the tip of his left index finger and swiftly stabbed it with the knife. It didn¡¯t go deep, but it did draw blood. Laying the knife on the ground, he proceeded to draw several arcane symbols onto the blade, the wound pulsing with pain as each was completed. Finally, he was done and both the runes and the wound flared in a crimson glow before settling. Then, the band aid went on. This kind of enchanting was painful and the wounds the used blood was taken from wouldn¡¯t heal except slightly scabbing over as long as the enchantment persisted, but it was somewhat effective. A quick and dirty solution for small scale projects. The unfortunate fact that stronger enchantments not only required more blood but also larger wounds kept the technique from finding all that much popularity amongst all but the most masochistic or desperate. It would do, for now. Isaac walked over to his phone, connected it to his blue tooth speaker and put on Sanctified with Dynamite by Powerwolf. The Power Metal wasn¡¯t his favorite kind of music, a friend had made that playlist for him, but it was just perfect for covering up the imminent sounds of combat. Dressed in his shabbiest clothes, knife held in his right hand, he stepped up the circle and spoke. ¡°Specter, come forth.¡± An unearthly howl that was almost completely swallowed by the bombastic music tore through the apartment, followed by a pale blue form erupting from the center of the circle. A head wreathed in hair that streamed in all directions in full defiance of gravity turned to face him, blue eyes so dark they seemed black locking in on him. Unnaturally long arms tipped in vicious claws lashed out towards him, but Isaac dodged backwards, completely avoiding the attack. The Specter floated closer, right hand swiping towards his head. Ducking under it, he flung himself forwards while activating [Piercing Strike]. A yellow glow wreathed the blade just before it stabbed through the robe-like exterior of the monster, white whisps escaping in place of blood. But that was only step one of the attack. The second began as the runes began to glow so brightly their crimson shapes could be seen even from the outside. Isaac simply let go of the handle and rolled to the side as the bottomless abyss with razor sharp incisors for outer gates that was the Specter¡¯s maw tried to close around his head. It wailed, trying to grasp at the dagger, but between the [Skill] allowing it to penetrate so deeply and the runes fusing it with the flesh even as others tore the beast apart, it was an exercise in futility. All he had to do now was wait for it to die. He glanced back over his shoulder at the specter to see the right arm shooting at his face and ducked, only to be forced to roll to the side once again as the left hand erupted from the floor to claw at his leg. Typical Ephemeral Type, attacking through solid object that only their fleshy opponents couldn¡¯t see through, or were impeded by. Despite being solidly outmatched in terms of abilities and raw stats, Isaac still felt he was in a good position to defeat this thing. He¡¯d fought so many of these things, he knew their move set pretty well. This being real life, those weren¡¯t exactly set moves, but rather a general way of moving attacking. One arm began to flail around, randomly trying to hit him while the second went into the ground while Isaac couldn¡¯t see where it emerged. Uh-oh. It ended up coming out of the wall behind him. Isaac noticed and threw himself forward, but this time, he was just barely too slow. Four lines of pain burned down his back as the claws tore through his flesh. He landed on the ground with a pained exhalation of breath, but still dodged the follow-up strike, and the one after that. And that had been the final one as the Specter dissolved.
Specter (Lv. 7) has been slain. 67 XP gained (50 base * 1.35 due to level disparity)
Better yet, the beast had left behind a wad of gunk as it dissolved. An Aspect, a kind of Item one could fuel with XP to gain one of several [Skills] related to the beast, as well as some stat points. Those were always easy to spot when it came to Ephemeral type monsters. Every human gained one slot for an Aspect every [Class] Evolution and further ones could be purchased for XP, with the cost increasing exponentially with each new addition. Theoretically, Isaac could have reached his previous level of power with just these Aspects, but that would have required more XP than all of humanity, combined, had ever earned. Exponential growth was no joke. And to put the cherry on top, this thing was why he¡¯d been dead set on killing Specters in the first place. Score! Now all he needed to do was fill it with ¡­ ¡­ not score. He had nowhere near the required XP points to activate this thing just yet.
Name: Isaac Thoma
Class: Rogue Species: Human
Level: 0 XP: 67/100
Health Status: Slightly Injured (see breakdown?) Mana: 101/110
Stats
Fortitude 11 Perception 9 The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Strength 9 Agility 10
Magic Power 11 Magic Regeneration 10
Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill
Skills
Hundred Faces I Stealth I
Power Strike I Piercing Strike I
Sundering Strike I Knives I
Sneak I
Thankfully, one of the many things handled by the status was the assessing of injuries. Slightly injured meant that one was basically still combat capable, though one would probably feel it if one kept fighting. Therefore, he was fine to continue, perhaps level up just once for the healing that happened with each level up. It wasn¡¯t complete, mind you, dying and levelling up would still see you dead unless one gained a truly powerful regeneration [Skill] in the process, but it would make quick work with those scratches and also give him the edge to kill the next one far easier. Isaac set the ritual up again, completed the chant and sat down on the floor with the Aspect while waiting for his mana to regenerate. No need to get blood on his couch unnecessarily, after all.
Aspect of the Specter: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Specter a Specter. Walking through walls as if there were nothing there, a rather loose relationship with gravity and the power to hunt the living with ease. Requirements for Activation: 1,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +5 Magic Regeneration One of the following Skills: Spectral Shift Specter¡¯s Flight Hunt of the Damned
Yep, the cost to activate one of these things, especially below Level 10, was rather prohibitive, but oh so worth it. One more Specter to kill, then he¡¯d level once. Once that was done, he¡¯d save all the other XP and presumably become one of the first people with an Aspect, Setting the orb aside for a moment, he went to the first aid kit and wrapped the wound to reduce the risk of bleeding all over the place before sitting down at the kitchen table with his laptop. ¡®A treatise on Summoning, Leveling, and the Risks entailed'' In essence, it was a scientific paper about the issues surrounding the Initialization and what could spring from them, based only on information that was currently available to the general public. He¡¯d initially planned on releasing something like this right at the start, but there were several issues with that plan. The first of those was the fact that he actually had to write the paper before he could publish it, but that was a rather obvious stumbling block. Also, not the real problem. No one should have already been able to get that level of detail ¡­ unless they had known ahead of time. If he started releasing build guides and dire warnings already, then people automatically assume that they were related to the Initialization and the chaos it had caused. And even if it was merely based on the information that was actually available to the public, then people would be quick to jump on the (anonymous) author and decrying them as the source of all their problems. People loved to pick on scapegoats when problems arose with no clear culprit to blame for them. Give the issue a face, then punch said face, standard human behavior. So he¡¯d spend the breaks in between summoning typing the paper and release it in a couple of days when someone could have reasonably compiled all of that information. Of course, they¡¯d have to have done nothing but research to finish it so quickly, but that wasn¡¯t as impossible. The actual build guides, dire warnings about specific summons would come later, when said summoning said creatures was actually within the realm of the possible. Thirty minutes passed in no time flat, so Isaac closed the laptop, returned to the summoning circle and activated it. Unfortunately, this Specter was a little smarter than the last one. It took one look at Isaac¡¯s enchanted knife and sank into the ground. He lunged, driving the knife into its neck before flinging himself back away from it to avoid the retaliatory strike. It had managed to leave the room almost completely before the knife hit the solid object. The runes flared brighter and brighter until all that was visible of the Specter was a crimson dome protruding from the floor. Simultaneously, the finger he¡¯d pricked to draw the runes began to ache as they drew more and more energy ¡­ until the Specter just fell apart.
Specter (Lv. 6) has been slain. 65 XP gained (50 base * 1.30 due to level disparity)
Hopefully, there hadn¡¯t been anyone in the room directly under him. Otherwise, his downstairs neighbor would have gotten the fright of their life. At least this type of enemy wouldn¡¯t leave blood and gore all over the place as it died. Also, it hadn¡¯t had the fortitude to withstand the knife¡¯s power long enough to pull the weapon through the floor. There was a small gouge taken out of the summoning circle, so Isaac fixed that up before recasting the ritual. Lastly, he confirmed his first level up.
Name: Isaac Thoma
Class: Rogue Species: Human
Level: 1 XP: 32/200
Health Status: Healthy Mana: 12/110
Stats
Fortitude 11 Perception 9
Strength 9 Agility 10
Magic Power 11 Magic Regeneration 10
Free Points: 10 Stat, 3 Skill
Skills
Hundred Faces I Stealth I
Power Strike I Piercing Strike II
Sundering Strike I Knives II
Sneak I
Ten stat points to make himself stronger, as well as three [Skill] points to enhance existing or purchase new [Skills].
Far Strike (common) Upon the User¡¯s next melee attack with a bladed weapon, the blade will extend by 2+0.5n meters where n equals skill level. Cost: 20 mana
Sweeping Strike (uncommon) Upon the users next attack, 5 blades of 3+.3n meters in length, where n equals skill level, will extend from the blade, allowing the user to strike at a large area. Spread of blades must be specified by user, maximum spread is 45¡ã. Length of blades may be reduced to reduce mana cost. Cost: 30 mana + 5 mana/meter
His [Skill] points only lasted a few seconds as Isaac immediately purchased all the remaining [Skills] he wanted. There were others that might be useful, but the ones he could get once he¡¯d reached Level 10 and evolved his [Class] were far better. He might have also upgraded his existing [Skills], but he could also improve those through mere practice, as he¡¯d already done with [Knives] and [Piercing Strike]. Alright, so that was done. Now on to distributing the 10 Stat points he¡¯d gotten for the Level up. Three went into Perception, two into Magic Regen and Agility and one into each of the remaining Stats to bring them all except Strength up to twelve, slightly above average. Not outstanding, but above anyone short of a serious athlete. He spent the last remaining few minutes to continue with writing his paper, then summoned the next Specter.
Specter (Lv. 8) has been slain. 67 XP gained (50 base * 1.35 due to level disparity)
Specter (Lv. 6) has been slain. 62 XP gained (50 base * 1.25 due to level disparity)
Specter (Lv. 7) has been slain. 67 XP gained (50 base * 1.35 due to level disparity)
¡­
It took him a while, but eventually, his Status showed just how far he¡¯d gotten.
Name: Isaac Thoma
Class: Rogue Species: Human
Level: 1 XP: 1007/200
Health Status: Healthy Mana: 120/120
Stats
Fortitude 12 Perception 12
Strength 10 Agility 12
Magic Power 12 Magic Regeneration 12
Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill
Skills
Hundred Faces I Stealth I
Power Strike I Piercing Strike II
Sundering Strike I Knives II
Sneak I Sweeping Strike I
Far Strike I
Excellent.
Activate Aspect of the Specter for 1,000 XP?
¡°Yep.¡± It might not be strictly necessary to speak out loud to command the [System], but doing so was what Isaac was more comfortable with unless there were people around to overhear.
Choose one of the Following Skills: Spectral Shift Specter¡¯s Flight Hunt of the Damned
¡°[Spectral Shift].¡± Isaac commanded. Being able to selectively ignore gravity via [Specter¡¯s Flight] was an enticing prospect, as was the incredible sensory power that was [Hunt of the Damned], but the [Skill] he¡¯d picked was the clear winner, at least in Isaac¡¯s mind. It had become one of his staple powers in the other timeline, and for good reason. A little bit of mana let him ignore most attacks or barriers. Mana based attacks or wards could hurt him, but only a small part of the damage would carry over to his fleshy body. And he¡¯d soon get a little something to deal with that.
Spectral Shift (rare) Allows the User to shift into an Ethereal form, allowing them to pass through all non-mana-infused objects and non-Skill-enhanced attacks. Mana passing through the User¡¯s body will inflict small injuries both on the surface and the inside. Avoiding powerful attacks without a regeneration Skill is recommended. Cost: 10 mana for activation, 5 mana per second of upkeep
Perfect. And he¡¯d even gained a second Aspect of the Specter during the grinding process.
Name: Isaac Thoma
Class: Rogue Species: Human
Level: 1 XP: 7/200
Health Status: Healthy Mana: 120/120
Stats
Fortitude 12 Perception 12
Strength 10 Agility 12
Magic Power 12 Magic Regeneration 17
Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill
Skills
Hundred Faces I Stealth I
Power Strike I Piercing Strike II
Sundering Strike I Knives II
Sneak I Sweeping Strike I
Far Strike I
Aspects Aspect Skills
Specter Spectral Shift
For his next plan, it would be better to get another one, though it wasn¡¯t strictly necessary. As Isaac made to set up the next ritual, his phone rang. He glanced at it, hoping it was his mother calling, but the display simply read ¡°Boss¡±. He sighed. He was currently working in a normal office job, hence having been offered the [Office Drone] [Class], while he was working on getting his Bachelor¡¯s degree in economics. That man was an ingrate he¡¯d been promoted past the instant he¡¯d completed his degree. Isaac sighed. This could only end in disaster. ¡°Good afternoon, Mr. Scott.¡± ¡°I take it that means you¡¯re not planning on showing up like everyone else?¡± the annoyance tinged voice of Isaac¡¯s direct superior replied. ¡°In case you haven¡¯t noticed, the world is ending. Nobody is coming in.¡± Isaac snarked. And in fact, almost nobody was going in to work. It had been so bad that the governments had even had to pass a bill to prohibit people from getting fired over this. It was only the efforts of a few good Samaritans that kept the water, power and electricity going. ¡°I don¡¯t see any mushroom clouds or zombies outside, so where are you getting that information? Or are you, mayhaps, saying I¡¯m blind?¡± ¡°I¡¯d tell you precisely how you can shove the idea that everyone needs to come in despite the situation up your ass ¡­¡± Isaac waited until he heard a sharp intake of breath from the other end of the line ¡°¡­ but I¡¯m fully aware that that is anatomically impossible, given that your head is already wedged up in there.¡± ¡°YOU ¡­¡± He just hung up before the tirade could start. Getting fired for a stunt like this would normally be an issue, but Isaac already knew what he was going to do for cash. It was a blob of ectoplasm lying in a bowl on the kitchen table. Chapter 3: Trains and Introspection Isaac hopped on his laptop and bought a ka-bar off amazon, to be delivered in a couple of days. At least that was what the website still promised, though the current situation would likely throw a serious wrench into that. Of course, if there was one employer whose employees went in regardless of how terrible the overall situation and working conditions were, it was amazon. Once he¡¯d gotten that out of the way, he downloaded Tor Browser and installed it. Once Isaac had gotten truly involved in the mess surrounding powerful summons directly, a lot of the coordination had no longer needed to be hidden from various interested parties, instead running through the communication channels of the governments desperately trying to put a lid on the ever expanding problem. But he had spent enough time in that particular part of the internet to at least know his way around a little. Using both the limited anonymity provided by the Tor browser and various other anti-tracking tools he planned to download somewhere other than his home Wi-Fi, he¡¯d eventually release the paper he was writing. For now, however, all he needed to do was type in the URL for a particular website from memory. He¡¯d only met with the people controlling it a single time and that had been well after everything went to shit, but someone had mentioned the ¡°innovative¡± idea of having a proper website during a night of heavy drinking. Quickly, Isaac typed in a short message about having obtained a pair of powerful, [System] related items and wanting to sell them. It took all of five minutes to get a response back. While it might have been an entire page long, it basically boiled down to ¡°we¡¯re interested, but you¡¯d better not be screwing us¡±. A couple of minutes later, he¡¯d already booked his train ticket to Milan and was on the way to the station, with only a backpack for luggage. Isaac ran down the stairs of his apartment building, quietly reflecting on how easy this would have been if he¡¯d been willing to use his powers to their full extent. In the other timeline, during that short timeframe in between becoming truly powerful and the world going to shit, he¡¯d had a habit of just walking outside his apartment and dropping through the floor using [Spectral Shift], one story at a time. But sadly, that kinds of shenanigans a mere eleven hours after Initialization would raise some serious eyebrows. Sure, selling to the people he¡¯d just contacted would do the same, but they wouldn¡¯t be quick to spread any information about him. He¡¯d dressed in an incredibly eye drawing, neon green shirt, but he tried to avoid drawing looks as well as he could. The sheer incongruity of an eye-catching garb and avoiding actually catching gazes would help level his [Sneak] [Skill]. Once he¡¯d reached the central station, he immediately entered the train to Milan and started trying to lose people¡¯s gazes the moment he¡¯d acquired them. Fundamentally, [Skills] gained strength through one of three methods. Continuous use did eventually level up a [Skill], but that would take for-ev-er. One could also use it against significantly stronger enemies. And lastly, one could train a [Skill] using one¡¯s own knowledge and experience about what the [Skill] manipulated to make it stronger. Isaac did have over almost a decade¡¯s worth of practice using [Sneak] to vanish from sight. Therefore, wearing something that would catch the eyes of his fellow passengers but avoiding their sight should increase his [Skill] levels quite a bit. Mind you, there weren¡¯t many people who¡¯d used this particular method in the other timeline, at least not in a way that was documented, so there was¡¯t any historical data to back up the theory. Isaac leaned back in his train seat and sighed. It was only 6 in the evening, he¡¯d only been awake for eleven hours, but he was so bloody tired. Spending that time fighting monsters and considering monstrous invasions might tend to take a lot out of you, but the Level up had taken care of most of his physical exhaustion. It was his mind that was exhausted. Fighting that final battle, then ending up in bed without even a single second of sleep in between and doing all the things he¡¯d done ¡­ he was asleep mere moments after he¡¯d sat down. He wasn¡¯t sure how long he rested, however, as he jerked awake the instant the train started moving. Constant fighting in the other timeline¡¯s final years had led to him becoming an incredibly light sleeper, ready to defend himself at the slightest disturbance. A lot of other people who¡¯d learned the same skill had also learned how to sleep through those normal and harmless noises, but he wasn¡¯t quite at that level. Isaac sighed, closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep again. He was just so tired. It felt like a moment¡¯s inattention would cause his eyes to flutter shut and not open for a week. This cycle of falling asleep, then waking back up as the train a particularly loud rumble repeated itself perhaps seven, eight times until he eventually grew sick of it. A glance at his watch revealed that it was currently a few minutes after midnight. With a great sigh, Isaac heaved himself out of his seat and began to walk the length of the train to clear his head. He encountered a mere handful of other people, which felt weird. In his experience, at least half the seats were full. But this train was dead. People were scared, hunkering down in place and waiting for the other shoe to drop. In fact, only a few trains had actually run in the first place, many of them having been cancelled due to a lack of personnel. It was only due to the actions of a handful of people who were either incredibly diligent workers, had ice water flowing through their veins, or were simply in denial about the state of the world. People barely going into work for a week had nearly been enough to end society. Vital services had been kept going by a handful of people for the first couple of days, at which point a proper workforce sufficient to tide everything over using a combination of incentives and rather creative threats. Eventually, Isaac found himself in the train¡¯s restaurant/lounge car. Overpriced food and drinks whose quality in no way justified the cost, proper tables to sit down at, and a large TV screen on the wall. Currently, it showed a heart wrenching scene of a Ghost flitting along the street in some random city somewhere on the globe, leaving bodies lying behind it. Someone had made the mistake of summoning an Ephemeral type creature, been unable to defeat it and now, it was killing indiscriminately. Even the weakest Ephemeral enemy was sadly unbeatable without a proper attack [Skill] or magic, which very few people had right now. In the other timeline, Isaac hadn¡¯t known this had happened. It had just been one of countless small tragedies that happened after the Initialization, reported on in the moment but ultimately forgotten, drowned in the flood of similar incidents. Sadly, there was nothing he could have truly done to prevent this from happening. Even if Isaac had stood up in front of a camera the instant he got back and spilled the beans on everything, how many people would have listened? How many people would have even heard the message? He had no intention of revealing his entire past just yet, perhaps not ever, for obvious reasons. But knowing that even taking that step, that incredibly dangerous step, would barely help with the situation sucked. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. The TV was switched over to a different channel by the sole worker in the car. This time, it showed a more lighthearted, feel good story about a group of firefighters who¡¯d managed to pull off a near flawless rescue during a high rise fire thanks to embracing the [System]. [Pyromancers] to redirect the fire, [Hydromancers] to create water from thin air, people with the actual [Firefighter] [Class] that had gained supernatural powers related to their profession. The report didn¡¯t actually say just how they¡¯d done this or what [Classes] they¡¯d used, but Isaac could think of plenty of possibilities. And it might even have made him feel a little bit better ¡­. if it hadn¡¯t been for the scorch marks halfway up the building that he could clearly identify as having been caused by a Fire Spirit. For all the good that the [System] had done in this situation, there wouldn¡¯t have been a situation without it. Seriously though, what kind of numbskull summoned a creature with fire in the name indoors? Isaac just shook his head and sighed. People, in general, were intelligent beings, he reminded himself. It was just that the most idiotic were also the ones you heard about on the news. Cue joke about Florida man. He snorted internally as he thought about that. He¡¯d never even been to the States before, but even he¡¯d heard some of the more extreme, yet true, tales. Funnier still would be the reaction of those firefighters who¡¯d taken an Elemental-[Class] when they realized how much physically stronger their other colleagues would be when they levelled up. When humans tried to think of a fit group, firefighters came to mind, yet soon, some of those people would be nowhere near as strong as their toned bodies indicated. After all, their [Classes] would need a very different stat distribution. Then again, everything would change. People would be able to do more, do different things, even be capable of entirely new actions that had only been possible in their wildest dreams. That alone would cause chaos, even without getting into the issue about how one person becoming able to do the job of ten people would cause nine people to get fired. While people could gain XP just by taking actions in line with their [Class], such gains were incredibly small. Therefore, the whole issue hadn¡¯t really become a problem until right before the world had truly gone to shit, but people had been able to see the writing on the wall. Really, it was the whole automation putting people out of a job issue all over again. There would be new jobs, different jobs, entire new industries created, but how many people would be willing or able to make the switch? And all of that was ignoring the issue of a world filled with people that could bring down skyscrapers with a wave of their hand. Of course, not everyone would be willing to work to reach those heights as it would become increasingly more difficult and dangerous to advance as one¡¯s Level rose, but some would. At what point would law enforcement no longer be able to keep up with the criminals they tried to arrest? Isaac was here to save humanity from the monsters that the [System] had brought with it and even had the beginnings of a solid plan on how to achieve that, but he had no idea how to save humanity from itself. Or even if he was the one who¡¯d be doing it. Sure, he wanted to help, but really, those kinds of societal issues would be better handled by someone with a wholly different skillset. One less focused on murder and mayhem and more on getting along with people you didn¡¯t really like. The sheer amount of change the world was about to go through was mind boggling. Even Isaac, who¡¯d both seen the beginnings of said change happen and over a decade¡¯s worth of time to think about the possible consequences only knew about a fraction of what was going to change. ¡°Hey, can I get you anything?¡± While he¡¯d been thinking, the attendant behind the bar had come over to him. Isaac had noticed, of course, but he hadn¡¯t expected the other man to strike up a conversation. ¡°No thanks.¡± Isaac replied. He wasn¡¯t hungry or thirsty, nor did he currently have the disposable income to spend on overpriced food just yet. Despite that, a can of coke was placed on the counter before him. ¡°On the house.¡± the man winked ¡°Just don¡¯t tell anyone.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t.¡± Isaac glanced up and down the train car ¡°And I don¡¯t think anyone else will either.¡± ¡°It¡¯s crazy, isn¡¯t it? What¡¯s happening in the world right now. I¡¯m Fabio, by the way.¡± the man behind the counter introduced himself. ¡°Isaac, nice to meet you.¡± Isaac replied and held out his right hand, which Fabio shook. ¡°I was getting off the train and suddenly, this screen popped up in front of me, I nearly fell onto the tracks.¡± Fabio said. ¡°Ouch. I was in bed when it initialized. Scared the crap out of me, but that was all.¡± Isaac grimaced. ¡°Waking up to a sight like that, you must have thought you were going crazy. Or still asleep. I can¡¯t decide which would be worse.¡± ¡°Me neither.¡± Isaac chuckled, at which point Fabio produced a second coke and they clinked cans. ¡°So, what brings you on this train?¡± Fabio asked. ¡°There¡¯s an acquaintance in Milan I¡¯m going to meet. Someone who might be able to help me in this entire mess. But what about you? Why are you still working? It seems like half of humanity thinks the world is about to end.¡± Isaac replied. ¡°Well, I like this.¡± the other man spread his arms in an all-encompassing gesture. ¡°People think that trains are just a way to get from Point A to Point B and if you spend the entire ride with your nose buried in a book, they certainly are. But when you actually talk to people, it becomes so much more.¡± He gestured towards the closest table. ¡°Just a few days ago, there was a group of old ladies there, and then a couple of criminology students joined them. They talked about a lot of things, but eventually, the students started to explain about their studies. And then, they pointed to each of the old ladies and told them how suited they were to certain types of crimes. Imagine that, some young twenty year old looking a wizened grandmother in the face and saying ¡®and you, you would be a born conwoman¡¯.¡± ¡°Imagine that.¡± Isaac chortled. ¡°I just love ¡­ this. All of this. The people. Even if the world were to end tomorrow, I¡¯d still be doing this. Going out doing what you love, what else is there, in the end? ¡­ are you alright?¡± ¡°It¡¯s ¡­ it¡¯s nothing. No, that was a lie.¡± Isaac sighed ¡°I recently lost a couple of friends, just like that. But nothing you need to concern yourself with.¡± ¡°My condolences.¡± Fabio said. There really wasn¡¯t much more to say. ¡°Like you said, going out doing what you love, going out on your own terms, what else is there at the end? And that¡¯s what they managed to do. Doesn¡¯t make it suck any less for everyone else, though.¡± Isaac replied after a short pause. ¡°Really? I suppose that¡¯s as much as anyone gets.¡± Fabio said. ¡®Too right, Fabio.¡¯ Isaac thought. ¡®Too right¡¯ Kade and Mark might still be alive in this timeline, but that didn¡¯t make their loss in the other timeline hurt any less. And even if he did meet them again, they wouldn¡¯t be the same people he¡¯d known in the past. They wouldn¡¯t have had the same experiences, the same memories, the same ¡­ everything. Even if he were inclined to carefully recreate their other lives, he¡¯d only be able to create some bizarre mockery of the people he¡¯d known. What were they doing at the moment, anyway? Mark was almost certainly still chasing storms across the American Midwest, an experience that had left him so in tune with the weather that he¡¯d even gained a powerful [Class] related to it. Kade was still deployed somewhere in the Middle East unless Isaac was very far of the mark. The Professor would be getting just about ready to begin experiments to try and make sense of this strange new world. And as for everyone else? Isaac didn¡¯t actually know where they were right now, they¡¯d never talked about it. They¡¯d all gotten involved in fighting the invasions and become people who fought monsters, different from whom they¡¯d previously been. Their old lives, left behind, rarely talked about. It was ironic, he thought. Of all the people he¡¯d only met in the other timeline, it wasn¡¯t one of his best friends he¡¯d visited first, no long lost loved one, but a Mob Boss. ¡°Sorry, I didn¡¯t mean to bring up bad memories.¡± Fabio apologized, clearly having mistaken his silence for him being upset. ¡°It¡¯s alright. Death is just another part of life, isn¡¯t it? Ignoring it isn¡¯t going to make it go away.¡± Isaac replied. ¡°That probably makes you more accepting of that than ¡­¡± Fabio trailed off, gazing wide eyed at the TV. Isaac turned and his jaw dropped. On the screen, a little girl, perhaps nine, ten years old stood. It was a scene that would have looked perfectly ordinary ¡­ if it hadn¡¯t been for the tentacled thing in her arms. The cute, cat sized thing with tentacles and googly eyes. ¡°What on Earth?¡± Fabio asked. ¡®An eldritch familiar, adjusted for the kind of [Class] a child would get ¡­¡¯ Isaac thought. Children usually didn¡¯t gain any [System] based powers until they were mature enough to handle them, but there were exceptions. And the [Classes] they got tended to be a little more childish than normal. A pet Eldritch abomination that somehow managed to be cute ¡­ sure. Weird as all get out, though. ¡°That¡¯s something straight out of Lovecraft.¡± Fabio muttered. ¡°If Lovecraft had also been the producer for My little Pony, sure.¡± Isaac commented, drawing a laugh. ¡°I suppose so. I guess that¡¯s the world we live in, then.¡± They continued to talk for a couple more hours until they reached the stop where Isaac had to get off and change trains. Isaac sighed happily as he stepped out of the train car, taking a deep breath of the cool night air. Hours of such a staggeringly normal conversation had been such a treat after an entire day of nothing but fighting and writing. He spent a few more hours waiting at the train station, then got onto the next train that would take him all the way to Milan. Most of that time was spent trying to sleep, even if said sleep was fitful. Looking out of the window, Isaac could see the sun slowly rise, illuminating the city as it slowly came closer. One way or another, the events in this city would change the course of his future, for good or ill. Keep reading on Amazon/Kindle/Kindle Unlimited Thank you all for checking out Apocalypse Redux. I''m afraid that due to it being up on Kindle Unlimited, in accordance with Amazon''s rules, i can''t have the story up anyhwere else. If you¡¯d like to continue reading, the book, and all six sequels, can be found on Amazon (https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Jakob-H-Greif-ebook/dp/B0BFTLZGCS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=13IN8XO6ZF1N7&keywords=apokalypse+redux&qid=1664793743&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIyLjU4IiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=apocalypse+redux%2Caps%2C105&sr=8-1). This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. You''ll also find their Audiobooks on there as well. There are plans for a sequel series in the work, and once that is ready, it will be uploaded to RR first, so if that''s something that interests you, please, feel free to subscribe to this fiction, since this is where I''ll be uploading the chapters. Hope you have a fantastic day, Jakob Non-canon sidestory: Research Team Bailey publishing guidelines The following are the (un)official guidelines for our research group¡¯s conduct when publishing: 1. The most important rule is proper citation. Mistakes and misinterpretations can be fixed, accidentally ripping someone off or making impactful statements without supporting evidence will have long term consequences. That includes any bombshells Dr. Thoma casually drops in the middle of a conversation. Make him provide a source, and if he hasn¡¯t written it down somewhere citable, either make him publish something to quote or provide an experiment that can prove his statement. Just because he said something does not mean you don¡¯t have to prove it. 2. There are no specific rules as to the formatting of publications. Choose a font and spacing that looks professional, suits the nature of the publication and does not have symbols that can be misread given the subject matter. Professor Chandler already got a complaint from someone who misread the chemical formula for chlorine as being the empirical chemical formula for hexaiodobenzene and burnt their eyebrows off because in Arial, a small L looks to a large I. Edit 1: Yes, that means that Comic sans is off the table. 3. Be reasonable when choosing whom to name as co-authors. You can name near-sapient familiars and enhanced pets as co-authors, but if you do so, make sure to make it possible for the reader to tell that they¡¯re not available for, say speaking at a conference. Edit 1: this came up because of F. D. C. Willard. In 1975, a physicist named Jack H. Hetherington wrote a solo paper that included the phrase ¡°we¡± a few times and was told that wasn¡¯t acceptable for a paper written by a single person. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Because changing that would have been a lot of work in those times, he decided to put down his cat Chester as a co-author. To avoid anyone who knew his cat from noticing, he used the scientific name (Felis domesticus) as part of a fictitious name and used the cat¡¯s father¡¯s name (Willard) as a false surname. The whole thing got exposed when F. D. C. Willard was invited to speak at a conference. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._D._C._Willard#cite_note-Zankl-1) Edit 2: If you put down a familiar, tell me. Someone just invited Brisa M. Mina to speak at a conference about the paper on ¡°Familiar Evolutions through Raid Boss Aspects¡±, which she co-authored. Apparently, they didn¡¯t read far enough to realize that the ¡°M.¡± stands for Microraptor and that she signed with a clawprint. I don¡¯t know the names of everyone¡¯s pets, so I won¡¯t always be able to immediately reply to such a message with ¡°that¡¯s someone¡¯s familiar¡±. 4. When giving scientific names to newly discovered species, please take that seriously, scientific names are almost impossible to change, even if they¡¯re racist or otherwise unprintable. If there¡¯s an appropriate joke to make, I won¡¯t stop you, but please keep the joke names to one in ten. Edit 1: Here¡¯s an example of a good joke name: The ¡°Mini¡± genus of frogs, whose scientific names are ¡°Mini mum¡±, ¡°Mini scule¡± and ¡°Mini ature¡±. (Schertz et al., 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_(frog)). Edit 2: Yes, that man¡¯s name is indeed the German word for ¡°prank¡±. Sequel Preview Prolog: Once More Into the Breach 2137, unknown star System Space was a vast expanse of nothingness before him, endlessly spreading out in every direction. Nuclear furnaces burned like ever-distant campfires, stars dotting the skies. In fact, there was a star just a few thousand kilometers from him, but it was hidden from sight. Dr. Isaac Thoma had seen a lot of things in space, from the emptiness between stars to somehow even greater emptiness between galaxies, watching nebulas grow indistinct as he flew through them and was no longer able to properly take in the reflected glow from the stars behind it ¡­ but a Dyson sphere was new. And fit in perfectly with the warning his doomsaying prophecy [Skill] had provided.
Prophecy: The Distant Worlds Seal One: A blue orb, lonely, In a universe old, vast Beings unknown live Seal Two: Graveyards ancient, Distant civilization Execution rise Seal Three: Review vision Y/N?
The whole mess was, well, messy. The first seal of the prophecy was shared with the warning called ¡°The Wider Existence¡±, which he¡¯d gotten when he¡¯d first gotten his prophetic [Book of Seven Seals], but the pair had diverged since then. As he¡¯d suspected, ¡°The Wider Existence¡± was a generic warning about alien races existing, and it hadn¡¯t really budged beyond adding a second Seal to clarify. But this one, the prophecy of distant worlds was rather more alarming, having not only given him three updates in less than a decade but also showing him enough to let him find the first of these dead worlds. Well, ¡°world¡±. It was a sphere around a star that someone had somehow built, capturing every iota of power it put out to fuel the vast technology inside the sphere. It was slowly disintegrating, though, with most technology gone and the pressure inside growing and growing until stuff started breaking. He¡¯d left Elena two star systems over, which held an almost entirely oceanic planet smack-dab in the Goldilocks Zone. A drinking-water ocean. At the 5th Evolution, she¡¯d gained the ability to link new bodies of water to her pool, expanding her power and, over time, creating a connection between the two. Of course, traversing that connection was a whole other kettle of fish, costing not only mana, but if the range was long enough, ludicrously expensive reagents. But it was still useful, and unless something went horribly wrong at the Dyson Sphere, they¡¯d be having some fun at that place later. Isaac projected a brief burst of flame while reducing his own mass to bring himself to a dead stop relative to the star and let himself be drawn in by the gravity of both the star and the metal that surrounded it. His sensory [Aura] swept out, penetrating the metal with casual ease and laying bare everything in range. It was weird how simple the technology and the materials were. No ¡­ ¡°simple¡± was the wrong word. ¡°Mundane¡± was perhaps more appropriate. No magic, no physics-breaking apparatuses, just a whole bunch of advanced alloys and technology that Isaac couldn¡¯t understand, but he could still see regular physics behind the whole thing. Karl would be able to reverse-engineer this stuff, kit and caboodle, in an afternoon. Admittedly, an afternoon was a tad optimistic, but the principle still stood. This had to be old technology, built over a century ago, before the [System] had arrived. Either that, or the people who¡¯d built this place had decided against using that ability. Or they¡¯d evacuated after the Initialization? He certainly hadn¡¯t found any bodies, or anything that might have once been bodies. Still, this place looked fine. A quick check with [Blessing of Innovation] told him that trying to do the math about how much damage this place could do to Earth would give him an aneurism, but it also informed him that even if every atom on that star were to spontaneously be converted into energy, Earth was still well outside the blast radius. And for that matter, so were the territories of all known extraterrestrial species. Maybe the threat lay in someone finding this place and using its technology to wage war? Isaac could certainly imagine this incredible [System]-independent tech being built using magical materials and covered in enchantments to create glorious and terrifying machinery, or maybe ¡­ nevermind. There was a monster. A massive, glowing, spectral beast that came up from the heart of the star, entering Isaac¡¯s [Aura]-range. Yeah, that was a problem. Isaac reengaged [Alcubierre Bubble] and zapped himself into a higher orbit. The [Skill] didn¡¯t work too well in combat, but shit hadn¡¯t fully hit the fan just yet. And then, he waited, looking at where he knew the monster would emerge. A mass of spectral flesh the size of a mountain pushed through the surface of the Dyson sphere. But as bad as that was, the real issue was the fact that inspecting the beast provided a [System] screen.
Spectral Amalgam, Death Knell of Worlds, Ephemeral Gestalt, Nascent World Boss (Level 147) When a world dies, its killer doesn¡¯t go with it. When fools summoned Ephemeral monsters, they were torn apart, their vaunted technology failing to damage anything to halt the advance. By the time warriors rose through the ranks by slaying other enemies, their entire world was already flooded. And over the course of decades, this swarm of beasts has fused and combined, ascending first to the rank Field, then, later, Raid, and finally, World Boss. However, the creature¡¯s Level is not yet at the maximum, and as such, it has not come into its full power, ¡°merely¡± being a Nascent World Boss. Even so, this is still a beast of apocalyptic power, wielding cataclysmic magic that can ruin worlds if not stopped.
Well. Shit. [Final Defiance] crackled in the back of Isaac¡¯s mind, practically begging to be unleashed. This thing wouldn¡¯t necessarily be a threat to Earth for centuries even if it could go FTL once it hit Level 200, but it was still a threat. And no one knew if [World Bosses] could autonomously summon. This thing needed to go, the only question was if he should try to do this himself, or wait and get reinforcements. The smart choice would have been to get reinforcements, and hope the monster hadn¡¯t moved away by the time he returned. Which would be in a year or so. He had a few ways to get back to Earth in moments, but coming here again would take a long time. But he hadn¡¯t had a good fight in forever, this thing needed to be dealt with, and it wasn¡¯t an actual [World Boss]. Yet. Isaac grabbed his communications necklace and warned Elena he was about to do something stupid, though that was more of a ¡°by the way¡± message, rather than a call for help. Burning [Final Defiance] would put him well past the point where she could help and if it ran out before the monster died, then he¡¯d call for help. The monster came closer, swimming through the cosmic ocean, slowly taking on an odd shape. At first glance resembled the regular, cliche, ghost, a spectral woman in a trailing gown, but it was decidedly not that. For one, it wasn¡¯t human, taking on a distorted form that might have revealed the true form of the Dyson Sphere¡¯s builders. There were also quite bulges and extra limbs, half-merged ephemeral beasts that hadn¡¯t quite been assimilated into the new form. Isaac switched his [Class] to [Assassin of the Logos Blade] and studied the beast. The merging spots were sadly not weak points, nor was any other spot on its body. A typical Ephemeral-type, it would need to be killed via cumulative damage, and there would be no shortcuts. It would also wield something akin to a Poltergeist¡¯s telekinesis, a Wraith¡¯s weapon manifestation, the ability to project deathly cold, and what seemed like the power to split off parts of itself to create minions. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Isaac pulled a dozen blades from his Arsenal Bracelet and charged them with energy entirely and fundamentally inimical to the creature before him, and sent some more of that energy into his other bracelet. And with that, he returned to [Challenger of the Apocalypse] and charged. [Final Defiance] ignited within him, flooding his body with power, and he charged. He¡¯d killed countless [World Bosses] with the rest of humanity, and as a result, [Aspects of the End] had been massively boosted, gaining a permanent 10-second increase to his time pool, as well as a new sub-[Skill], with every new foe. Not to mention that he¡¯d slotted several of their Aspects, gaining several powerful new Aspect [Skills] and a ton of Stat points. [Speed of Hati] wreathed him in white light as he accelerated, while flames were projected by [Balor¡¯s Gaze] and [Primoridal Cycle], wrapping him in power and massively increasing the potential of his fire-based powers. Up first, a full battery of [World Boss] Aspect [Skills]. They gave quite a few ¡°cooldown but not really¡± [Skills] with high power and a cooldown, but a mana cost that had to be paid outright. So it was a damn good thing that mana wasn¡¯t something he had to worry about right now. [Glare of Obliteration] was one of Balor¡¯s [Skills], projecting a devastating beam of fire, heat, and fury from his right eye for the low, low cost of two and a half thousand mana. It thrummed with power, blinding him in one eye as it hammered into the Spectral Amalgam¡¯s chest and tore straight through, going down the length of the beast. Isaac jerked his head to the side as he closed and the beam slid through the monster¡¯s body, carving huge chunks out of it before it spluttered out, only to be immediately followed by a series of compressed fireballs from his hands, the combination of the universe¡¯s deadliest flames known as Prometheus¡¯ Wrath detonating against the Amalgam¡¯s body. And then he was in range to trigger [Field of Annihilation], Balor¡¯s other big attack [Skill]. It was less focused, meant to clear the field of battle and turn even the most mountainous terrain into a parking lot upon activation, but it was still devastating when thrown in someone¡¯s face. The Amalgam¡¯s face cratered under the force of the impact and countless manifested weapons shattered, but before the monster could recover, Isaac had already triggered [I Am The Sword],making himself invulnerable and immovable for a split-second. Then, he was inside the creature, switching out his armor as quickly as he could. At some point, [Fully Geared] had gained the power to equip an infinite number of armor sets, as long as they were each made out of a different [World Boss]. And each of these sets had a different daily or weekly ability. He triggered every power the second it was available, switched, and activated the next one, the new flood of power being unleashed before the old one had even dissipated. Tearing gusts of wind, explosions, floods of fire, frost so cold it burned to touch, spatial tears, the touch of death, raw magic ¡­ the monster screamed as its insides were obliterated. There might not have been any organs there to damage, but its essence was still getting shredded. He erupted out the other side of the beast and reversed course as quickly as possible, being immediately greeted with a flood of spectral weapons. Each of them trailed white energy and radiated cold, but he wasn¡¯t worried, meeting the barrage with his own salvo, summoning every form his soulbound blade, Old Reliable, had. They jumped forward practically on their own and ignited, shattering the weapons while attacking the main body, using another of his cooldown [Skills]. [Champion of Mankind: The Cleansing Flame] wrapped him in fiery hoplite¡¯s plate armor, deadly power incinerating anything that got close. Isaac charged with all the acceleration [Speed of Hati] provided and punched out with his right arm, bracer disintegrating to unleash the payload stored within. Hundreds upon hundreds of tiny needles, ready to be flooded with [Logos Blade] energy when needed, holding it until he unleashed them. Hundreds upon hundreds of instances of energy inimical to his foe¡¯s very existence striking it, tearing it to pieces. BANG! His blade-telekinesis added more speed to the needles as the bracer fell apart, the salvo shredding the front side of the Amalgam, its ectoplasmic body practically disintegrating wherever they touched. Drawing his charged blades from the Arsenal Bracelet, Isaac fed mana into [I Am The Sword] and tore straight down the monster¡¯s length again, then pulled onto his various weapons still stuck on the other end of the monster while sustaining their flames. The Spectral Amalgam didn¡¯t whirl around, exactly, rather, it transformed in such a way that it was now facing him without outright turning, and suddenly, it started bringing out massive weapons, swords the size of battleships, hammers that were like skyscrapers. Attacks were met with fireballs and counterblows, [Power of the Behemoth] flooding his limbs with strength while providing him the ability to ignore the concept of an equal and opposite reaction and not be hurled halfway across the star system by the first hit. All the while, his burning soulbound weapons were drawn through the beast, shredding it bit by bit. Back and forth, hacking and slashing, Isaac tore apart the monster, but its stamina and life force seemed inexhaustible, constantly regenerating. Until one particular cut caused it to simply ¡­ fall apart. No apparent cause, it hadn¡¯t even been a particularly good strike, but it seemed to have finally pushed through the monster¡¯s ungodly durability.
The World Boss Spectral Amalgam has been slain. Heroic Deed has been noted. As you have killed this monster on your own, without outside help, you will receive all rewards: 10 Aspects of the Spectral Amalgam, 50 cubic liters of Spectral Amalgam Ectoplasm in a specialized container, 2 tons of spectral steel, and the Pseudo-World Item [Heart of the Android]
Ah, fuck. This thing was a full [World Boss] in almost every way that mattered, and if there were other undiscovered dead civilizations out there, one of these days, its remnant would become a real one. And the World Item would be ¡­ interesting to deal with. Less powerful than a true one, but nonetheless capable of causing widespread changes. Something needed to change. Perhaps he needed some help out here? A proper survey corps. Bored S-Rankers, desperate A-Rankers, talented low-Level people who could be given material support and would hopefully gain optimal [Classes] of epic or legendary rarity. It would be a gamble, especially in the latter case, but he was rich, ¡°fuck-off money on a global scale¡± rich. He could afford to take a few gambles. And hadn¡¯t there been that little program of having people train until they were thirty before they picked their starter [Class]? Sure, whoever was currently running the Bundeswehr would likely be hopping mad if he poached those folks, but that was nothing a little ¡°bribe¡± of taught [Skills] couldn¡¯t smooth over. *** The solar system was a very impressive place. It had always been, a natural wonder that had fascinated humanity since the very first homo sapiens had stared up at the night sky. But once humanity had started properly exploring it, they¡¯d made changes. After society had stabilized from the System¡¯s arrival, changing to handle the increased capability of every single person, there¡¯d been a lot of somewhat bored, powerful, immensely long-lived superhumans around, with full access to the seemingly limitless resources of the Sol system. And what was someone with immense power, vast material wealth, and the time to take full advantage of the first two to do? The first ¡°fun project¡± had been an annual illusion that made the moon look like the Death Star, for one day, on George Lucas¡¯ birthday. It would have gone over a lot better if the idiots responsible for the first casting had actually told people what they were going to do. Look, there was nothing wrong with wanting to honor the work of a great man after his passing, nothing at all, but suddenly having a planet-destroying superweapon hanging above everyone¡¯s heads had caused something of a panic ¡­ and almost ended with the people responsible charbroiled by an overly enthusiastic quick reaction force. No one had ended up dead or badly injured at the end of the day, but it had been a near run thing. Isaac had been around for that one, as well as the next few endeavors. Like when someone had decided to rebuild the version of Atlantis seen in the Stargate series on the surface of Neptune, though that had ended in an expensive and embarrassing failure. Sure, no one had died, but having the structure that had been hailed as the ¡°Jewel of the Solar System¡± crumble mere days after it had been completed ¡­ oof. Just glancing around, it was very easy to tell what had been designed by an engineer told ¡°design me something made to do x¡±, and when someone had told an engineer ¡°he¡¯s a picture, here¡¯s the wiki page, here¡¯s what it looks like in action, now make me something like that¡±. Star Wars designs were utterly non-existent, though. Even nowadays, no one fucked with Disney¡¯s copyright lawyers. But that was hardly the only space-related series that people with too much time on their hands wanted to rip off. The spinning drum of the Babylon 5 station was visible in the asteroid belt, though Isaac could only shake his head at the use of rotary gravity. Sure, it worked, but could cause nausea in those aboard. And then, there were the abominations that were Star Trek vessels. According to Patrick, the engine nacelles were designed like that due to technology limitations in the series, but in the real world, having the propulsion be that far from the main body, not pushing against the center of mass directly, created immense sheer forces. Those connection points were more heavily enchanted than literally the rest of the ship combined, to avoid having them snap like toothpicks. Someone had built what looked like a 20th-century battleship, adapted the guns for use in space, sealed all external access points, and slapped rockets to the rear end. The ship with ¡°Yamato¡± stenciled on the bow was actually a more viable design than the ¡­ dozen or so Enterprises floating around the System. Or was it ¡°Enterprise Class¡±? Either way, those things were weirdly popular. But popular culture ripoffs aside, the solar system was utterly swimming with ships of every size and design, as well as artificial satellites for any purpose one could imagine. Space stations, FTL internet relays, fabricators that could eat asteroids whole, and more besides. And the planets themselves had been changed immensely as well. Most of them, at least. Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus, being gas giants, weren¡¯t meant to be settled directly, but there were immense buildups of industry around them. Venus, meanwhile, had been terraformed a decade after Mars had, and Mercury held a combination of a luxury resort and the Solar Guard¡¯s High command. The Solar Guard had started out as the space-equivalent of the Coast Guard, but rapidly acquired heavier and heavier ships as dealing with rogue summons not located on a planet had become a part of their duties. The inner system looked slightly odd, though, severely lacking in the civilian passenger traffic department even though it was thousands of times more populated than the outer system. That was easily explained, however, since the Earlking¡¯s World Item had created a fast travel system there. It had a few limits on usage, like each person only being able to travel a couple of times a day, and had a somewhat limited number of points where it could be used, but overall, it was vastly superior to all other forms of travel. People who¡¯d received private points could even moderate usage! But Isaac¡¯s favorite planet by far was Mars. After all, he owned a sizeable chunk of it, a plot of land nearly as big as Germany. He was the one who¡¯d used the World Item to terraform the planet, and in exchange, he¡¯d received Olympus Mons. Twenty-one kilometers high on the lip of the crater, and six hundred kilometers meters across. All of it was his and Elena¡¯s, and they¡¯d transformed it into a paradise. His and Elena¡¯s house had been built into the wall of the crater, overlooking the large lake he¡¯d created there, filled with wonderful wildlife to fish for or hunt, fruit plants like coconuts lining the side. Beyond that was vast unspoiled wilderness, with only the occasional small town interrupting it, some populated with friends and allies who¡¯d wanted a place away from it all, or the caretakers of the land. Amy, for example, had built a palace from sparkling crystal, right underneath a waterfall, while Raul had decided to go old school with a log cabin made from entirely mundane materials. It was the most valuable piece of real estate in the solar system by now, due to its size and a complete lack of any building codes beyond Isaac or Elena saying ¡°no¡±. But Isaac and Elena had no intention of selling off any parts. Ever. But the real value was the thing that no one knew about. The stuff underneath the soil, filling the entire mountain and several kilometers beneath it. Machinery, supplies, potions, armor, weapons, fabricators, even spaceships. If shit ever hit the fan again, if humanity found itself in danger despite everything he¡¯d achieved so far, this arsenal would be enough to fuel a war to conquer the entire galaxy. Final Character Sheet Final Stats
Name: Isaac Thoma
Class: Challenger of the Apocalypse/Assassin of the Logos Blade (inactive) Species: Einherjar
Level: 200 (max) XP: 2,001,781,899
Health Status: Healthy Mana: 6,850/6,850
Stats (0 Stat points, 16 Skill points/0 Logos Assassin Skill points available)
Fortitude 600 (+20) Perception 1,050
Strength 700 (+15) Agility 1,295
Magic Power 685 (+10) Magic Regeneration 1,050
***
Aura
Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range, combat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection)
Aura of the Eternal Warrior (mid-range, combat/mental/sensory, armament)
Central Skills
Form of Horror XXX The Chosen Weapon XXX
I Am The Sword XXX Grave of Swords XXX
Armory of Ancient Times XXX Legacy of a True Warrior XXX
Divine Fire XXX Champion of Mankind XXX
Final Defiance XI Aspects of the End (Speed of Hati, Power of the Behemoth, Wisdom of the Simurgh, Sea of the Leviathan, Primordial Cycle, ¡­) XXX
Skills
Hundred Faces XXX Stealth XXX
Power Strike XXX Piercing Strike XXX
Sundering Strike XXX Blades XXX
Sneak XXX Sweeping Strike XIX
Far Strike XXX Manifold Strike XXX
Hunter¡¯s Gaze XXX Phantom Step XXX
Unknown Fear XXX Bestial Regeneration XXX
Undying Focus XXX Tools of Terror XXIX
Fleeting Presence XVIII Crippling Blow XXIX
Absolute Blade Mastery XXV Compounded Impact XXV
True Cut XXI Legendary Blow XXX
Fully Geared XXVI Knightly Leader XXX
Analyze Person XXX Continent Strider XXX
Burden of Power XIII Expert¡¯s Insight XXX
Blessing of Innovation XXVI Lessons of History XXX
The Meaning of the Name XXIV Titanic Presence XXI
Fire Soul XX Book With Seven Seals IX
Call of the Gjallarhorn XVIII
General Skills
Gralloch XVIII Alchemy XVI
Death¡¯s Embrace VIII Bloodline of the Hellborne Survivor (Empower Relatives)
Advanced Bureaucracy XV Police Procedure VIII
Healing VIII Quest Giver III
Omniglot (5.998 languages known) Member of the Round Table (Shade: Seon Yoo-jin)
Accumulation of Knowledge (unranked) Well of Wisdom¡¯s Blessing (unranked)
Enhanced Dragon-Scale Web (unranked) Crimson Runic Script XII
Unrestricted Speech X Biomantic Alteration (unranked)
Aspects Aspect Skills
Archspecter (full stack) Ephemeral Phase
Ghostly Freedom
Endless Hunting
Spectral Touch
Lernean Hydra (full stack) Hydra¡¯s Restoration
Adaptive Regeneration
Disposable Organs
Dismiss Injuries
Cosmic Leviathan (full stack) Stellar Travel
Charging to Infinity
True Environmental Adaptation
Omnidimensional Maneuvering
Reality Filter (full stack) Reality Shift
Perception End
Set Illusions
Free Illusions
Living Sword (full stack) All Blade Style
Involable Blades
Annihilating Trails
Unhindered Bladework
Void Dragon (full stack) Star¡¯s Heart
Infinite Mind
Scales of the Void
Wings of the Void
Leviathan, Prince of Envy (full stack) Moment of Immortality
Progressive Invulnerability
Mantle of Indomitable Scales
Sea of Damnation
Lord of Time and Space (full stack) True Spatial Warp
And I Shall Not Be Moved
Cosmos Soul
True Spatial Affinity
Ankou (full stack) Freedom from Mortal Limits
Eternal Restoration
Implements of True Death
Reaper¡¯s Cloak
Royal Draugr (full stack) Endurance of the Eternal Warrior
Always Armored
Spectral Plate
Loyalty Past Death
Ymir (full stack) Burning Storms of Muspelheim
Freezing Winds of Niflheim
Titanic Strength
Progressive Invulnerability
Ziz (full stack) Wings of the Tempest
Solar Radiance
Moment of Immortality
Progressive Invulnerability
Balor (full stack) Field of Annihilation
Glare of Obliteration
Moment of Immortality
Progressive Invulnerability
Hundred Faces (common, Level XX) Ultimately, even the greatest criminal is unable to completely avoid being seen. But what is seen doesn¡¯t have to be the user¡¯s true face. This Skill allows the user to adjust their entire body, within reason, to allow for some degree of anonymity. This will not, however, affect the user¡¯s physical capabilities. After countless situations where this Skill has been used to hide the user¡¯s true feelings it has evolved to act as a method to hide the user¡¯s emotions as it does their true appearance. It is now far more capable of changing facial expressions to reflect false feelings and these false feelings will also be what emotion-sensing Skills will see. Cost: 50 mana per minute while adjusting, 15 mana per minute while cloaking emotions Stealth (common, Level max) Use magic to shield the user¡¯s form from visual inspection, as well as muffling noise created by the user. Quality of shielding will increase at higher levels. However, user¡¯s expertise has increased the power of this Skill, allowing it to suppress the user¡¯s smell and prevent the user from leaving physical traces while it is activated. After countless battles where this Skill was used to stalk and eventually take down prey, be it animal, monster or human, it has evolved to reflect this, the process of the hunt. While in stealth, the user may instill a sense of dread and foreboding in his intended victims with no clear source, ensuring they know there is something hunting them, and even create sounds and flashes of something in the dark at a distance to serve as a distraction. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, allowing its user to cloak itself from specific search methods to massively increase its power, to the point of hiding even from the most advanced sensors at anything other than point-blank range. Cost: 1 mana/sec, doubled while secondary power is in effect Power Strike (common, Level max) The user¡¯s next blow will hit as though their strength were three times as high. This Skill may now also be safely used on fists and legs and has a reduced backlash on the user¡¯s body. After countless battles where this Skill has been used to drive a piercing blade into an enemy¡¯s flesh, it has evolved to ignore the concept of an equal and opposite reaction, driving the cutting edge into the foe while pushing them with vastly reduced strength, massively improving armor penetration. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, infusing each and every attack with a permanent 20 % increase in impact power, regardless of whether or not this Skill was activated. Cost: 12 mana per strike Piercing Strike (common, Level max) Users weapon is covered with energy, increasing its ability to penetrate armor. This effect lasts for a single strike. Should the weapon in question be stuck within an opponent, the effect will last for 2 sec, allowing for removal of weapon or further cutting. In addition, it may now be used in ways beyond the original description, lingering on weapons after use, refining them, and being able to be combined with other Skills. After countless battles where this Skill was used to pierce the very core of an enemy and slay them in a single, swift, strike it has evolved into an even deadlier form. It may now stab through space itself, any thrusting attack empowered with it launching a beam of all-piercing energy at triple the mana cost. In addition, using this Skill will give the user insight into the location of his opponents¡¯ vital organs. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. It will now linger on any blade it is used upon, constantly providing it a degree of unnatural sharpness that can also cut immaterial things, which will only be further boosted if this Skill is used actively. Using this in conjunction with True Cut will reduce the cost of the other Skill. Lastly, Piercing Strike¡¯s base cost has been reduced while it has also gained the ability to be overcharged. tier Cost: 5-50 mana per strike, 40 mana per ranged attack Sundering Strike (common, Level max) User¡¯s next strike will weaken the targets armor around the point of impact. This damage is permanent until it is fixed/healed. This effect can be stacked until the armor is destroyed. This Skill can also be toggled to be almost undetectable, destroying any nerves or creature specific equivalent upon impact, or cause maximum pain by directly irritating whatever pain receptors a being might have. After countless battles where this Skill was used to tear apart the user¡¯s foes, shredding them on a fundamental level until their own movements tore them apart, it has evolved to destroy them, rather than merely weakening them. For an additional 18 mana, this Skill will now inject a weakening, magic based poison that rots an enemy¡¯s flesh and corrodes their defenses until nothing but soup remains. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. What once merely weakened armor to make follow-up attacks more effective was supercharged to melt flesh wholesale, eventually being used to simply destroy the entirety of a monster¡¯s internal organs. Now, Sundering Strike is able to disintegrate matter through touch or weapon, though its cost climbs exponentially as the target becomes tougher, has the properties of armor or is intended to be used for defensive purposes. Cost: 12 mana per strike, 30 mana per poisoning Strike, 100 mana minimum for disintegration (unarmored flesh belonging to a being at your Level) Blades (common, Level max) Grants user basic knowledge of using knives, including throwing and non-combat applications. In addition, the user may repair any bladed weapons in their possession through the application of mana. Any such weapons are also more durable in the user¡¯s hands and if they are not a traditional knife, they will slowly adjust their form to suit such a tool. After countless battles where the user has obliterated his foes using a soulbound Blade able to gain new abilities from power foes while making extensive use of Aspects, it has gained the ability to infuse the weapon, Old Reliable, with the power of said Aspects to give it new forms. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. The bearer of this Skill also turned out to be the bearer of truly legendary weapons. Some already had their own mythology while others are busy building one as their wielder does great deeds, but one and all, they belong in the annals of history. As such, the user¡¯s weapons grow in power as they¡¯re used, though in the case of soulbound weapons that grow with the user already, this Skill merely acts as a significant growth booster. Sneak (common, Level max) Grants user basic knowledge of how to move stealthily, from avoiding making noise to reducing visibility. Higher levels of this Skill will allow the user to have an overall lessened impact on the world at large, to the point of near complete invisibility. This Skill also has an active mode in which the User actively spends mana to reduce their impact on the world. After countless situations where it was used to hide in plain sight to avoid public attention, this [Skill] has evolved to create a permanent (toggleable) effect that makes supernatural or attention-grabbing displays by the user less obvious. (This effect is powered by ambient mana, a lack of such will require the user to power it themselves) And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, allowing the user to grow progressively harder to see the longer they do not move, to the point where it will take several seconds to spot them even when using obvious and highly-visible long-range attacks. Sweeping Strike (uncommon, Level 17) Upon the users next attack, 5 blades of 3+.3n meters in length, where n equals skill level, will extend from the blade, allowing the user to strike at a large area. Spread of blades must be specified by user, maximum spread is 45¡ã. Length of blades may be reduced to reduce mana cost. The user may also now choose how the blades are spread, it is not necessary for them to be evenly spaced. Cost: 30 mana + 5 mana/meter Far Strike (common, Level max) Upon the User¡¯s next melee attack with a bladed weapon, the blade will extend by 2+0.5n meters where n equals skill level. In addition, the User may now imbued his weapons with ten mana to create a range enhancing aura for a full minute. This extra reach is 0.5 meters, gaining an additional 0.1n meters, with n being every Level in this Skill over 10. After countless battles where the user has used this Skill to destroy foes that thought they were safe due to being out of range, this Skill has evolved to grant him even an greater reach. The user may now input more mana at will, with the range doubling with every additional 20 points of mana invested. Caution: Extremely long blades may give way if engaged along their entire length, this may be mitigated by applying a second Skill to strengthen it (elligble Skills: Piercing Strike, Power Strike). And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, being able to be projected past solid objects, even bypassing non-magical armor, should there be sufficient space available behind said armor. Cost: 20 mana minimum, no maximum mana investment Manifold Strike (legendary, Level max) The user may combine any number of [-Strike] type Skills into a single attack, so long as there is one Skill with a minimum Level of X available for each Skill used below that Level. In addition, the overall potency of the Skills used increases by 10 %. After countless situations where this Skill has been used to deal devastating damage using the right combination of lesser Strikes, especially when combined with a second Skill that allows for multiple uses of the same strike, it has evolved to be even more powerful than the sum of its parts. Now, when staking multiple instances of this Skill using Legendary Blow, one may choose which Strike to use how often, modifying proportions as needed to create a truly optimal attack with no mana going to waste. In addition, the complimentary Skill of Legendary Blow has been enhanced to allow for an additional instance to be applied, for a total maximum of seven possible stacks. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, passively infusing all Strike-type Skills with the properties of all other Strike-type Skills at no additional cost, unless this is deliberately deactivated. Cost: Combined cost of individual Skills * 1.20^used Skills Form of Horror (legendary, Level max) There are many sides to the Undying Wraith. The impression they broadcast out into the world and show others, the hole in the world no one will ever perceive before it devours them, and lastly, the face someone only sees in the moment of their death. The form granted by this Skill. A monstrous alternate body based on the user¡¯s Aspects. If the user also has the Skill The Chosen Weapon, this weapon will be incorporated into the user¡¯s new form. Furthermore, while in this form the user¡¯s Strength and Fortitude are increased by 65 % while Agility and Perception are increased by 100 %. Magic Power and Magic Regeneration will remain unchanged. This Skill can only be activated once every hour and lasts for 300 seconds. It also requires 1,000 mana to use, which it siphons off from the user¡¯s mana regeneration so long as the mana pool is full. After countless battles where the user has used this Skill to annihilate foes that should have been well beyond his capabilities, it has been increased to a level of power worthy of its own legend. The user may now transform into any non-Boss creature whose Aspect he holds and has a Level that does not exceed his by more than 10 (more powerful creatures may suffer from a shortened duration). In addition, the user may manifest body parts of the monsters for a cost dependent on the specific body part copied on their normal body. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. The number of customizable forms is increased to 7, which can be freely created/altered while this Skill is inactive. These Forms can draw upon the forms of any monster whose Aspect the user has slotted. The Stat boosts provided by this Skill are increased. Furthermore, the user may freely switch between any of his one standard and seven custom forms while this [Skill] is active. Injuries will transfer between forms, but use of unique biological resources (quills, venoms, acid spray, etc.) will remain limited to the form that utilizes said resources. Current Forms: Aspect Amalgam King of the Sea Ruler of the Airspace Perfect Amalgam Speed Demon Acid Horror Death Titan The Chosen Weapon (epic, Level max) There are many things that determine the power of a warrior. Training. Physical Prowess. Skill. Raw Talent. But there is one more thing. A weapon. Having the right one to carry into battle can be the difference between life and death. And that is what this Skill is all about. The user may choose a single weapon and make it soulbound. This weapon then becomes a part of them, inextricably and eternally bound together, able to be summoned at will, and will never harm its user. As this Skill¡¯s Level grows, new forms and abilities will be gained. In addition, consecrating this weapon in the blood of legendary foes will grant it new strength and powers. The chosen Weapon has its own mana pool to use its own Skills, separate from the user¡¯s, drawing power from the environment. However, the user may also choose to divert their mana regeneration to refill this pool once their own is full. It starts out with a pool of 100, then increases by 10 with every Level the user has. Based on the user¡¯s Level in the Blade Skill, The Chosen Weapon (Old Reliable), gains a new ability for every Aspect the user holds. This weapon may now absorb nine (four remaining) additional weapons to be used as an alternate form for The Chosen Weapon. Weapons may also be removed at a cost of 1,000 mana, once per year. The Chosen Weapon will never cease being useful to its wielder, never stop growing despite the Skill being maxed out, sharpness and durability endlessly increasing as the user levels. In addition, every form of this weapon can be summoned separately (not only weapon types, but elemental and Aspect-based versions). Phantom Step (epic, Level max) A single step is the beginning of a journey of a thousand miles. And if this Skill¡¯s Level is high enough, then a single step can be a journey of a thousand miles. You are a phantom in the dark, an unseen shadow that streaks past in the night. With this Skill, the user can make a single step take them far greater distances than it would normally ever be able to. As a stealth Skill, it is vastly more efficient when used unobserved. This Skill may now also be used simultaneously with either [Ephemeral Form] or [Stealth]. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to sneak into enemy¡¯s blindspots and facilitate sneak attacks, it has gained the ability to fake a teleport. When teleporting, the user may chose a second location within his range and an illusionary copy of him will appear there as if via teleportation and act as the user would for a single second. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, gaining the ability to create countless illusions around the user after teleporting, including rendering them invisible or making them look like their foe¡¯s worst nightmare. Cost: 15 mana to initiate, 2 mana per three meters of unobserved travel, 4 mana per meter of observed travel, with a maximum range of 20 m +5 m per Skill Level Bestial Regeneration (epic, Level max) No matter how good a fighter is, injuries are inevitable, given enough time. Therefore, this Skill is as invaluable as it is indisputable that it will find a use. It allows the user to store excess mana generated by Magic Regeneration for the sole purpose of fueling the user¡¯s regeneration Skills. This pool will be used to automatically heal any injuries sustained unless this Skill is explicitly suppressed and will be used up before any regeneration Skills draw on the user¡¯s mana pool. This pool¡¯s size is Skill Level*50. In addition, it may be set to prioritize specific organs and body parts over others. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to keep its wielder alive through horrific injuries, it has evolved to provide a speed to boost to all of the user¡¯s self-healing powers, with the mana cost increasing proportionally to the boost, with a maximum increase of one hundred percent. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, empowering the user¡¯s recovery to insane heights. Whenever a certain body part of the user hasn¡¯t been injured for a significant amount of time, regeneration of that body part can be increased by up to 1,000%, with this boost halving every time it is used. The mana cost for empowered regeneration is increased by half as much as the regeneration itself. Undying Focus (epic, Level max) No matter what kinds of damage an Undying Wraith suffers, no matter how badly they are injured, one thing will always remain. Their undying willpower. This Skill grants the user the ability to directly alter their perception of pain, including completely shutting it off. WARNING! Completely removing one¡¯s sense of pain may lead to injuries going unnoticed! In addition, it prevents tunnel vision, therefore allowing the user to keep track of their goal without overlooking anything in the process and even block out mental attacks. Lastly, Undying Focus allows healing and regeneration Skills to heal brain damage and even restore damaged memories without requiring specialized Skills on the part of the healing individual. Furthermore, this Skill boosts the user¡¯s resistance to hostile aura effects. After countless battles where this Skill has been used to ignore even horrific injuries and terrible pain, it has evolved to allow the user to remove health seeping and other negative status effects through sheer force of will. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, becoming able to push out all distractions, all hostile mental attacks (that are not vastly disproportionate in terms of power) and memetic hazards, as long as the user continues to focus on it. The greater the assault on the user¡¯s mind and sanity, the harder it is to maintain focus. But for so long as focus is maintained, the sanctity of the user¡¯s mind remains intact. Tools of Terror (epic, Level XX) An Undying Wraith is never unarmed, eternally equipped with the tools of his slain foes. This Skill allows the user to draw upon the natural weapons once possessed by any creature whose Aspect he holds. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to create devastating counters, the user may set one body part to be created upon certain conditions being met, without requiring the user¡¯s active input. The cost must still be paid. Cost: 10 mana per weapon minimum, up to 100 mana for extremely large weapons, 1 mana every second to sustain it Fleeting Presence (epic, Level XX) There one moment, gone the next. Completely gone. This Skill tells the user how to erase all traces of their presence, such as footprints, avoid breaking branches and trampling shrubs. However, it also stops the user from shedding all the usual traces that all humans leave behind, such as skin and hair cell. It also prevents the oils found on human fingers from leaving behind fingerprints, though it will not prevent fingerprints from appearing if the user were to touch a material that is easily imprinted upon, such as soft wax, putty or a heavy layer of dust, instead disturbing the material until the fingerprint is no longer visible, but that by itself could be spotted. Likewise, nothing will transfer from the user¡¯s clothes or shoes to any surfaces, and footprints will be removed, but the signs that something was removed might still be visible. After countless times when the user has used this Skill to get away with acts of vigilantism, it has evolved to be particularly effective at countering the Skills of law enforcement officers. Crippling Blow (epic, Level XX) Striking down a target with a single attack is the sign of a truly excellent Assassin or other stealth based combat Class. But sometimes, that simply isn¡¯t possible. A foe is too large, too good at regenerating, or simply has more than one point that needs to be targeted in order to kill it. And that¡¯s where this Skill comes in. Activating this Skill will cripple any mechanism, biological, mechanical or magical, that the user touches and can be projected through armor or hide at a length of up to 5 cm, increasing by 1 cm per Skill Level. This requires the user to focus on the specific thing they want to disrupt (i.e. sensory organs to impede perception, limbs to slow down movement, natural weapons to reduce offensive power, etc.). By default, this Skill is very painful, but that can be increased to near-crippling levels for a slight increase in cost. After countless times when the user has cut powerful foes down to size, this Skill has evolved to highlight the restrictions it has caused to allies while hindering all foes¡¯ abilities to perceive the damage. Cost: 20 mana per use minimum, can be increased up to 150 to affect powerful enemies or tough body parts I Am The Sword (legendary, Level max) In the right hands, a sword can be a devastating weapon. But sometimes, the hands themselves can be a weapon far more dangerous than any mere hunk of metal. And with this Skill, both is the case. For 0.1 seconds, increasing by 0.01 seconds per Level, the user¡¯s form will become indestructible, immoveable, and inviolable while their momentum will be maintained for that period, tearing through or pushing aside anything in their path while this Skill is active. In addition, the user¡¯s static body acts as a blade, far more likely to cut through instead of push away the target, and Skills that require a blade can be used upon it. This Skill can only be activated every 60 min and cost requires 750 mana to use, which it siphons off from the user¡¯s mana regeneration so long as the user¡¯s mana pool is full. After countless fights where the user has torn through the most vulnerable points of powerful monsters, this Skill has evolved to deal devastating damage to even the gods of destruction that are the Raid and World Bosses. Upon striking an enemy, the user of this Skill may choose to either enhance penetrative power to go through armor even when the laws of physics dictate that this shouldn¡¯t be possible, or reduce it so that even a relatively fragile enemy can be sent flying. Furthermore, the damage inflicted by this Skill will increase in different ways depending on the mode used. Maximum penetration will cause the user to disrupt the flesh around themselves as they move through a foe, while going for an impact-based attack will send powerful shockwaves into the enemy¡¯s insides, inflicting internal damage without requiring an armor breach. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, being able to be cast freely and with far fewer restrictions. For 2,000 points of mana, I Am The Sword may be cast even while it is on cooldown. Cost: Major Stamina Drain, 1,000 banked mana/2,000 mana Grave of Swords (legendary, Level max) A vast field, countless blades thrust into the dirt, each one representing a warrior who fell in battle within this space 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, it hits its time limit, or is deactivated by the user, any leftover mana will be refunded and placed in the Skill¡¯s pool. 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 (+5 mana per opponent Level over the user¡¯s, +50 for each Tier barrier between the user¡¯s Level and the monster¡¯s, overall cost doubled for Bosses, tripled for Raid Bosses and quintupled for World Bosses) This Skill can only be activated every 5 hours in combat, 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. After countless fights where the user has sealed powerful foes within to protect his allies, this Skill has evolved to further enhance the isolating power of Grave of Swords. It can now be used to seal of a part of the battlefield, creating an incredibly durable spherical barrier around the user, with a radius of 50 meters (it increases automatically for larger, singular foes, according to the same rules as the regular use of this Skill). The user may choose to banish any person in their Party from this zone to protect them, but enemies cannot be forcibly removed. (Note: inanimate objects overlapping the barrier will not be damaged, living beings will either be pushed into or out of the Grave of Swords if they overlap the barrier during its creation, depending on where the majority of their body is) Furthermore, this Skill has gained an additional effect due to a high degree of synergy with the Class Hildebrand¡¯s Heir. When using the Grave of Swords to train against enemies trapped within, the user may choose to take along other people. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, becoming a tool to control the battlefield itself. Firstly, the user may now control the opacity of the Grave, allowing people to see inside, allowing those within to see outside, or both. In addition, they may control whether anyone can take advantage of this sight, or if it is limited to just their party members or even just them alone. Secondly, the Grave¡¯s location is no longer visible from the outside. Thirdly, when the Grave is closed by the user¡¯s victory, the user may decide to exit into any safe spot within a kilometer of where it was opened. And fourthly, the Grave can now be recharged or sustained with mana donated by others. Cost: 1,500 banked mana base cost for combat purposes, cost increases with target¡¯s power, increase must be paid from stored blades or the user¡¯s mana pool Absolute Blade Mastery (legendary, Level XX) All throughout history, countless people have staked their lives onto these pieces of metal, living and dying by the blade. Some may have wielded it in anger without any training at all, other spent their entire lives honing their craft without ever having to raise their weapons in a real fight even once. Yet none of them have ever reached this stage, because they couldn¡¯t. Normally, there is always more to learn. At some point, you will solidly run into the issue of diminishing returns, but your path will never truly end. And then, there¡¯s this Skill. Might not grant absolute skill with the blade, but it allows the user to truly master it in all of its forms, in two different ways. Firstly, now any and all skill and experience with any blade carry over to any and all other blades. Never, ever, under any circumstances, will a tiny difference in balance, length or weight screw you up, never again. You can pick up an entirely new type of sword that you¡¯ve never even conceived of, as long as you are a master of some manner of sword, you will also be a master of this one. Secondly, never again will you cut something you did not mean to cut. You have absolute control over your weapons, you could shave a furious cat actively trying to murder you with a gauntlet sword without ever even so much as inflicting a single scratch, this is the level of fine control you hold now that you have this Skill. Hell, you could wave a chainsaw around in a crowded disco and unless you want to hurt people or destroy objects, the only issue would be the noise. Lastly, this truly legendary level of skill with the blade can now be shared with others. The secondary effects of this Skill will not be imparted, but proper use of the blade can turn even a blunt pair of scissors into a lethal weapon, and this is what your students will learn. After countless fights where the user has used this Skill to utilize their skill with the blade on such exotic things as even their hands, it has evolved to gain a new effect. The edge of their hands, their elbows, knees, heels, and any other striking surface become sheathed in energy when used to attack, being protected, gaining a cutting edge/piercing point, Furthermore, the user becomes permanently able to use their skill with blades while fighting hand-to-hand as well. In addition, the user¡¯s blades and aforementioned body parts are capable of bypassing any resistance to physical attacks an enemy might have. Finally, now that the user has been forged into a blade, the damage of any of their physical attacks can be controlled or negated entirely, allowing them to perfectly control what is damaged or destroyed. Compounded Impact (legendary, Level X) When striking at the same place, over and over again, each blow will cut deeper than the last. With this Skill, a bond will be created between the user¡¯s blade and an opponent, every additional strike hitting harder and harder, drawing an ever increasing amount of mana until even a casual tap contains the force to shred mountains. (Combo resets after 5 seconds of no successful hits) For an additional cost of 10 mana upfront, the first strike can be enhanced to count as the fifth hit in the series. Cost: 1 mana, doubles every use, resets after 3 seconds True Cut (legendary, Level XX) What can be cut? Paper? Flesh? Bone? Rock? Metal? Air? At what point is something too hard to cut, and can you even cut liquids or gasses? What about things with no physical form to cut? Well, with this Skill, the answer is that everything can be cut, no matter how hard, no matter how immaterial, no matter how conceptual it may be. Defenses sundered with a swipe as a magical shield is destroyed in a single swipe or the very concept of armor ceases to function for the brief instant it takes for the target to lose its head. However, not all uses of this Skill are as grand as that. At its most basic, True Cut can be used directly on the effects of another Skill and cut it, disabling it for a period dependent on the amount of mana invested. In addition, the Skill ¡°Implements of True Death¡± can be applied to reinforce True Cut, doubling its mana cost. This will increase the duration of the damage caused by True Cut and make it harder to re-establish destroyed effects. After countless times when this Skill has been used to carve out the heart of an organization, causing an enemy or their organization to come apart at the seams, it has evolved to highlight the easiest targets, the cheapest to destroy, as well the most important ones to go after. IMPORTANT: Concepts cannot be destroyed, only damaged, and will return rapidly, possibly instantaneously, and can only be affected in a small area. WARNING: The cost of this Skill depends on the target and may exceed the user¡¯s mana pool by a significant degree, attempting to overdraw the mana pool will lead to the user¡¯s death. Cost: variable, depending on type Armory of Ancient Times (legendary, Level max) They had some good stuff back in the time of legends, didn¡¯t they? Legendary swords, cloaks of invisibility, rings and belts that granted the strength of ten men ¡­ all that good stuff. But we don¡¯t have that stuff anymore, they were either lost to history or they never existed in the first place. But with this Skill, it doesn¡¯t really matter which of those is true, because Hildebrand¡¯s Heir is able to summon anything he wants, so long as Hildebrand once held it, such as his sword Balmung, once wielded by Siegfried. You may summon multiple weapons (or objects) at a time, and doing so will reserve 100 points of your mana to maintain it unless you can find alternative ways of sustaining it for the first, with the cost doubling with every additional summon. As you learn more about Hildebrand¡¯s legend, you¡¯ll learn more about what you can summon. After having one of this Skill¡¯s ancient weapons summoned nigh-permanently, it has evolved so that the user may also permanently summon a single object by paying 2,000 mana upfront. This object will remain without requiring upkeep until it is either broken or dismissed. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, allowing the user to, once a century, elevate one of their pieces of gear to the status of a legend, taking them beyond the limits of their material properties. Currently available gear: Balmung, Nagelring, Eckesachs, Mimung, assorted mundane gear, Laurin¡¯s Ring, Hildegrim ¡­ Legacy of a True Warrior (legendary, Level max) 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. Not only that, but all of that experience has been improved by the knowledge of how to apply it to a world with the [System]. 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 (downgrade 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 Knowledge (downgrade from Expert¡¯s Insight, 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 1/35 However, there is one more way the Heir of Master Hildebrand can teach people. After reaching Level 10 in this Skill, the Heir may teach groups of up to five people at a time. This will only grant a rare Skill, rather than an epic one, but only use up a single timeslot. Using a few hours of one-on-one training and 80% of a slot, the Skill can be upgraded to its full power. In addition, this Skill allows the Heir to seamlessly interface with training Skills used by coworkers. After countless fights where the user has turned a disparate collection of individuals into capable warriors, forging them into warriors capable of slaying Demon Lords and even Dragons, this Skill has evolved to create an army of legends. Any individual who walks the same path as the Heir and works with them to achieve their end goals will passively be taught the Skills that Legacy of a True Warrior can grant and these Skills will rapidly level (up to the Heir¡¯s Level in the specific Skill) as long as they continue to support the Heir in their endeavors. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, granting its user the ability to teach all basic Strike, Blow, Shot, Armor, and military discipline Skills to their trainees. The cost for teaching these [Skills] is one-fifth of the normal cost. In addition, the user will effectively have access to these Skills at Level thirty, but lack threshold bonuses. In addition, once per week, the user may temporarily enhance all of their subordinates¡¯ Skills of the above types to the next threshold. This boost will last for six hours. Legendary Blow (legendary, Level max) A single blow to shatter mountains, raze city walls or split the sea, these are the things stories are written about and when someone uses this Skill, there is a good chance that too will end up being turned into a story. When Legendary Blow is activated, the user may use any of their Strike/Blow/Shot Skills up to eight (nine due to Manifold Strike Evolution) times to enhance a single attack, massively increasing its power. With every Level in this Skill, the cost of component Skills is reduced by 5 %, up to 25%, Levels past that merely boost the already ludicrous levels of power this Skill harbors into the stratosphere. After countless fights where the user has crushed their enemies using devastating attacks at the cost of most of their mana, this Skill has evolved to allow them to remain combat-ready afterwards. When Legendary Blow is used to deal the finishing blow and the user still considers themselves to be in combat, the sword is sheathed in another energy field that provides half the enhancement of the death blow that will remain until it is used or dismissed. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, gaining the ability to double up the number of potential advancements, at triple the mana cost. Fully Geared (legendary, Level XX) The historical definition of a knight is a lesser nobleman who maintains his own set of heavy armor and a warhorse. Therefore, a knight without his armor is no knight at all. And as sturdy as armor is, it can break, get stolen or simply fall apart if it gets too old. If you want your armor to survive for more than a couple of fights, this Skill is essential. It allows the user to store six full outfits in an extradimensional storage and dress themselves with a mere thought. Armor and clothing is cleaned upon being stored and damage is repaired so long as the required materials needed to replace removed parts are provided. Equipped armor can be reinforced using mana. In addition, armor equipped with this Skill becomes slightly tougher than it usually would be. After countless fights where the user has thrown this armor into the path of devastating attacks, last-second switches ruining both a foe¡¯s plans and the armor itself, this Skill has evolved allow the user to constantly swap out not just his armor, but individual armor pieces, continuously altering their equipped armor as is needed, restoring damaged equipment by cannibalizing other sets. All pieces can be returned to their original armor at will, albeit while retaining damage taken. Cost: 10 mana to store/equip/switch outfits, 5 mana per second to repair clothing, 50 mana per minute to reinforce armor Knightly Leader (legendary, Level max) Many a tale has been told of a heroic knight, of the dragonslayer, the rightful king who returns from exile to bring peace and prosperity to his home. All of these tales focus on a single individual, the knight, yet that knight is never alone. He has pages, squires, comrades in arm and occasionally, a mentor that¡¯s along for the ride. This Skill is an essential component of leading a group of your fellows into combat. Firstly, it allows for the creation of an official, System acknowledged party with all the advantages that entails (knowledge of each other¡¯s health states, locating allies, XP sharing). Secondly, it allows the user to draw upon all the experience about leading men that Master Hildebrand gathered over the course of his life, and apply it to the situation at hand. (this information has been updated to include the System, Classes and Skills) Thirdly, any commands given by the user will be able to override irrational panic if necessary. In addition, the user can remotely talk to party members up to ten kilometers away. And finally, the user can set up contingencies ahead of time, so orders are issued without the user needing to fully articulate potentially complex statements in the middle of a fight for their lives. These orders can be canceled at any time, should it be necessary, and new ones can always be added though it would be inadvisable if a distraction would endanger them. After countless fights where the user has used this Skill to lead a disparate collection of people to victory and empower them with new training, it has evolved to vastly empower the user¡¯s ability to turn a collection of random individuals into a solid group. Anyone who becomes a member of your party can be taught directly using Legacy of a True Warrior, and will gain basic combat and cooperation tactics should they not already have them. In addition, you gain an innate understanding of the dynamics of the people you lead, where the cracks in the group lie and where your current subordinates are lacking. It will also provide hints as to how these flaws can be compensated for. And now, Knightly Leader has reached the pinnacle of its power, granting its user a presence unlike any other, one representative of not only you, the leader but also of the people you lead. If you are in command of a group, you may borrow your subordinates¡¯ Auras, melding them into your own and creating a titanic presence that emanates from the entirety of your formation. The Auras¡¯ costs are doubled for their holders and may be withdrawn from the collective at will. Each individual Aura may be projected away from its user up to a distance of ten times its original range, but a member of the formation must still be within the standard distance of all component Auras. Cost: 100 mana to establish, 300 mana per day to sustain Analyze Person (legendary, Level max) Politicians, managers, hucksters. All kinds of people have all sorts of insights into the human condition, and the associated Classes have a myriad of Skills to help them with that, each one purpose built for a specific kind of analysis, giving them the exact kind of knowledge needed to do what they do. This Skill, on the other hand, is the distillation of a lifetime of experience reading people, empowered to a supernatural degree. It might not have the power of a focused Skill and therefore falls far short of the combined abilities of a social Class, but it doesn¡¯t have to match the might of an entire Class because that is not its purpose. This is a Skill that makes your current social skills useful in a world where magic can interfere with social interactions, as well as empowering said social skills with a lifetime¡¯s worth of experience. In addition, it allows for a degree of insight into what Skills are interfering with your mind/arguments. In addition, blocking hostile social Skills will be easier and will work with a smaller Level gap than normal. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. And now, the user will also gain the ability to see the person underneath whatever Skills and other effects might be changing them, hiding their true selves or otherwise making it so that you are facing a different person than you normally would. This scanning ability may not work at full strength against effects of significant power. After countless times where the user has used this Skill to navigate complex political situations, it has gained the ability to automatically highlight all social and political Skills whose effects can be perceived by the user by any means. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of power, allowing the user to see the reasoning behind almost all official actions, figuring out how even the strangest or most idiotic decisions came about. Continent Strider (legendary, Level max) In olden times, it could take months or years to go from city to city, from country to country. Modern technology has shrunken the world somewhat, but it still takes quite a while to move significant distances. This Skill not only removes the need for modern technology to travel vast distances in a reasonable timeframe, but further boosts the travel speed while moving on foot. Your movement speed on foot or horseback will increase exponentially with this Skill active. Continent Strider cannot be activated in combat or while fleeing combat, it is purely a utility Skill. This Skill can be applied to all party members so long as said party members are within 100 meters of the user and the user is the party leader. Every day, the user accumulates a pool of movement equal to one hour of travel without using this Skill. This pool has an upper limit of 336 hours, and can be used to open a portal to an important location the user has been before. This portal can carry up to five times the user¡¯s mass per activation and its cost amounts to how long it would have taken the user to make the journey normally, without using Continent Strider¡¯s acceleration feature. Combat utility limitations still apply. Each use of this portal a day after the first will double the cost each time. After countless occasions where the user has used this Skill to sneak in travel even amidst hectic emergencies, it has evolved to let them do their travel in segments. Once per month, the user may choose a single journey that they could complete in a month or less, and they may (outside of combat, twice a day) teleport to their last position in that journey, maintaining their movement bonus from Continent Strider. Once a journey is selected, it cannot be changed for a year, which will remove the ability to teleport to the journey (the user mustn¡¯t be on the journey while doing this) and while on the journey, it cannot be deviated from (including intentionally delaying/moving overly slowly). And now, it has reached the pinnacle of power, allowing the user to return ¡°home¡± once per decade, so long as ¡°home¡± is no more than one year¡¯s travel away. Alternatively, the user may skip up to ten years of travel, but this increases the cooldown to a century. Cost: 500 mana per hour, plus 100 per party member Burden of Power (legendary XIII) Heavy is the head that wears the crown, or so the saying goes. And it¡¯s true, only fools see the crown as something that turns one¡¯s life into a great and wonderful paradise. If one fulfills even a fraction of the responsibilities that leading a country requires, then one¡¯s life will be filled with hard work. This is the Burden of Power. When this Skill is activated, that burden shows in your Aura, a tangible thing for all to see, experience and be impacted by. It can either be used to focus attention on yourself and demonstrate your status as a leader, or you can now temporarily offload a small amount of that burden upon your foes and watch them crumble. In addition, the user may mark his foes with their Aura, allowing future auric attacks to have a greater effect. Cost: Auric Infusion, Aura of the Crimson Dawn: 20 mana per minute Auric Infusion, Aura of the Desperate Seeker: 50 mana per minute Foe Marking 50 points of mana Warning: Using two Auric Infusion Skills simultaneously will increase the overall cost by fifty percent Expert¡¯s Insight (legendary, Level X) What separates a soldier who just got out of training from a veteran? A student who just got his degree from a lead engineer? A wizard¡¯s apprentice from an Archmage? The answer to all those questions is, of course, experience. Some things are taught, yes, but others need to be learned from experience. Sometimes, said experience takes the form of repeating an action over and over and eventually figuring out a way to make said action more efficient. In other times, realization comes as a painful realization after a mistake reaps terrible consequences. Either way, this Skill offers up both a massive pool of experience to the user and vastly improves their experience and Skill Level gain by granting preternatural hindsight. If the user has any knowledge on a subject, they find themselves making connections far more readily and related subjects will be far easier to research. Furthermore, Expert¡¯s Insight acts as a general memory booster. As with many other Skills in the Hildebrand¡¯s Heir Class, a lesser version of this Skill can be granted to the user¡¯s students using Legacy of a True Warrior. However, unlike those other Skills, Expert¡¯s Insight does not turn into a lesser version of itself, but rather transforms into a fundamentally different Skill called Veteran¡¯s Knowledge, which allows the user of Expert¡¯s Insight to directly impart their knowledge (note that this is a limited effect, this Skill will not directly put the taught individual on the same level as the user). In addition, this Skill synergizes with Lessons of History, allowing the user to draw not just upon their own experience, but that of those they witness fighting, albeit at a vastly reduced efficacy. Divine Fire (legendary, Level max) Fire. What can it do? Pretty much everything, as long as you¡¯ve got the right kind and are creative enough. Fire. What can it be? Pretty much anything, as long as you¡¯re not risk-averse when it comes to getting it. That is where the issue lies. Getting it. Of the countless mystic and mundane flames there are, one can only gain a few if one takes the normal path, that is. Stealing them ¡­ ain¡¯t normal. But it is possible. It is audacious, ludicrous, but possible. And fully in line with the Promethean spirit. This Skill grants the user the ability to conjure and control mundane flames. Initially. The real power of the Divine Fire is its ability to absorb and assimilate all other fire, both magical and not. The user becomes immune to all fires they have absorbed (and can extend this protection to objects on their person) and are able to then wield it with the same power and ease as the original fire. Once conjured, flames fueled by the user¡¯s mana directly can be controlled for free while secondary fires spawned by the initial flame can be directed by spending a negligible amount of mana. All flames can be extinguished for free, be they conjured directly or merely ignited by conjured flames. All assimilated flames can be used individually or combined to form greater forms of fire, whose patterns can be stored for later use. The user also grows partially immune to unknown fires based on their similarity to already assimilated flames. After countless fights where the user has assimilated an enemy¡¯s fires and promptly tore their user to shreds, this Skill has evolved to subsume hostile flames once the user has absorbed a sample not just of the correct type, but the very same flames they¡¯re currently being attacked with. These flames can then be manipulated freely, drawing mana from the controlled fire and progressively extinguishing it in the process. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. The user gains the ability to exert power over all flames, manipulating all flames around themselves whether they¡¯ve been generated by them, subsumed, or are completely independent. The control cost for user-generated flames is entirely negated, and the creation cost is reduced by 25%. For hostile flames, a mana cost will need to be paid. However, it is possible to erase enemy flames by forcing them to cannibalize their own mana after paying a small initial ¡°deposit¡±. Cost Patters: Creation cost per second Standard Flame (6) Absorbed Flames: Samadhi Fire (1,600) Dragon¡¯s Breath (40) Grand Hellflame (40) Campfire (2) Burning Magnesium (11) Napalm (4) Stellar Corona (36) ¡­ (see full list (2,223)?) Combined Flames: Prometheus¡¯ Wrath (2,000) Drachenbrodem (200) True Starflame (260) Combined Elemental Phoenix Disintegration (80) ¡­ (see full list (448)?) Champion of Mankind (legendary, Level max) Humans are rather weak, aren¡¯t they? Small and fragile despite how much of the planet they¡¯ve conquered, what great things they¡¯ve made, an individual human is still not all that powerful. Which is why they sometimes need a helping hand. Someone who might give advice, stop powerful foes, or maybe just steal fire from the gods themselves. This is the Champion of Mankind, humanity¡¯s shield, and the vanguard of their march into a brighter future. This is a Skill that grants the wielder the power to protect others, adjusted for the situation. There are four forms this boost can take: The Leader: The Leader is the true power behind an army. When the Champion takes command, that fact becomes abundantly clear. All troops (up to Skill Level times a thousand) under the Leader¡¯s command gain a thirty percent boost to their physical Stats, are automatically empowered by [Veteran¡¯s Knowledge], and gain access to the basic Skills of all standard combat Classes, such as Strikes, Blows, Shots, Healing Skills, and simple Spells. Furthermore, the Leader temporarily gains a seventy percent boost to their physical Stats, as well as the Skills [Threefold Thoughtstreams], [Simulate Maneuvers], and [Battlefield Map]. The Leader lasts for 1 hour and has a cooldown of ten hours. The Thinker: The Thinker is the physically weakest of the Champions, yet also the most impactful, especially in situations where physical force is not the correct answer. The Thinker gains access to any five regular Skills from scientific/knowledge-based Classes up to and including rare rarity and the third Evolution. In addition, he gains access to the Skills [Parallel Thoughts] (each thoughtstream costs 1 mana per second from the Skill¡¯s pool), [Simulation] (each simulated second costs 2 mana), and [Mental Celerity]. Lastly, the Thinker can feed Spells using the Skill¡¯s mana at an exchange rate of 2:1. The Thinker lasts as long as the Skill¡¯s mana lasts (natural drain of 1 mana per second) and imparts a cooldown of one day. The Vanguard: The Vanguard is the simplest form of the Champion, but by no means weak. In fact, when it comes to raw combat power, it is utterly unsurpassed. When in Vanguard form, the user¡¯s physical Stats double, they gain a nigh-unbreakable set of armor custom-designed to match their fighting style. Furthermore, the Vanguard can, at will, draw in all ranged attacks made against nearby allies and even incite enemies to go after them instead. Lastly, the Vanguard gains temporary access to the [Indomitable Shield], [Unstoppable Momentum] and [Unbreakable Charge] Skills. The Vanguard lasts for five minutes and has a cooldown of four hours. The Cleansing Flame: The Cleansing Flame is exactly what the name implies. The user is wreathed in armor made from the flame they themselves created, known as Prometheus¡¯ Wrath. Anything up to fifty meters away can be affected by the fire and heat, though the power decreases as the distance increased, and the user can freely exclude the environment and living beings from this damage. The user also gains a seventy-five percent boost to all physical Stats. Finally, the user may add the healing aspect of Phoenix fire to their armor, healing select living beings. The Cleansing Flame lasts for five minutes and has a cooldown of six hours. *** In addition, the user may switch between forms once after activating this Skill. The cooldown of Champion of Mankind will be increased to three days regardless of which forms are used, and the remaining usage time is dependent on the amount of mana remaining, halved. After countless fights where the user has fought foes threatening the world as a whole, this Skill has evolved vastly to improve the power of both the user and their allies. The mana pool of this Skill is doubled and upon being triggered at full power, the user may either double the duration of their chosen effect, or grant up to two allies one of this Skill¡¯s effects. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, allowing its user to activate two forms simultaneously, at tripple the standard cost. Cost: 6,000 mana stored in a separate Pool/ 12,000 for boosting allies/ 18,000 mana for dual activation WARNING! This is a Skill meant to protect humanity and will fail when used in the service of ushering in its downfall. Titanic Presence (legendary XI) There are certain people who have a certain, well, presence around them. Raw charisma, sexual magnetism, a repulsive stench, it depends on the person, really. Draw the eyes, or make people hurriedly avert their gazes, both are a kind of impact. When a person holding the power of a Titan enters a room, everyone knows it, as they are capable of wielding not just a single Aura, but two at the same time. There are obviously significant difficulties attached to using not one, but two incredibly complicated abilities at the same time, which is why the second Aura can be slaved to the first, mimicking its movements. However, that will vastly reduce the power gained by this Skill. In addition, it allows the user to meld two Auras into a singular, powerful, effect. Cost for second Aura is equal to that Aura¡¯s basic cost. Blessing of Innovation (legendary, Level XX) A lion has teeth that can shatter bones, claws that rend flesh like tissue paper, and the strength to bring down all but the largest of animals in its habitat. A human has ¡­ what exactly? Sweating that allows for long pursuits and bipedal locomotion that allows them to carry stuff in their hands? Yet it¡¯s man who hunts lions, not the other way around. In fact, Africa¡¯s lions are so badly traumatized that they are terrified of humans and will run from any they see if they can. So why is that the way of the world? Well, as a kindergartener would put it: ¡°lions are stupid¡±. The Blessing of Innovation boosts the recipient¡¯s ability to figure out new things, to create new inventions to benefit the world as a whole, to make their mark on civilization itself, for one hour. (the recipient can be any willing sapient being within 10 meters of the user at the moment of activation or the user themselves) While active, the recipient may temporarily selectively ¡°forget¡± certain parts of their knowledge base or randomly remove certain preconceived notions to see their work from different eyes. (All memories and the old mental state will be restored at the end of the Skill¡¯s effect. This can also be done at will and the possibility of restoration cannot be forgotten.) Furthermore, the recipient may choose to divorce their knowledge from its respective sources, leaving them with nothing but objective fact for the duration of the effect. Lastly, the user may draw on the knowledge of lesser science and research Classes, borrowing up to three Skills at a time, up to a rarity of rare, and up to the second Evolution. The Blessing of Innovation can be used once per day to start with and gains an additional maximum charge every five Levels in this Skill. Charges refresh at midnight and do carry over for up to a month. And now, this Skill has gained the capacity to understand truths that man is not meant to know, and as long as Undying Focus is supporting the user during the learning process, this information cannot hurt them. After countless occasions where the user has granted others the power of infinite possibilities and indirectly given rise to incredible achievements, this Skill has evolved to vastly increase the chance of world-shaking advancements being made. The user of this Skill will be able to judge the likelihood of the recipient being able to make significant advancements upon receiving the blessing, and any recipient (including the user) will be shown the best Skills to borrow to achieve the intended goal. Accumulation of Knowledge (unranked) This Skill serves as a repository for the knowledge gained via the use of Blessing of Innovation. As Skills from research and science Classes are borrowed, they will sometimes bring with them new knowledge. Any parts of this information that the user utilizes can be remembered even after the borrowed Skill is lost. The Accumulation of Knowledge serves as a general knowledge Skill, representing the amount of learning the user has done. As Blessing of Innovation is used repeatedly, this Skill may unlock new functions. Lessons of History (legendary, Level max) Those who don¡¯t study history might be doomed to repeat it, but those who do study history will most likely end up watching someone else repeat it. Sucks, doesn¡¯t it? History is filled with great examples, both ones to live up to and ones to avoid living down to. This is a Skill to help turn those lessons into plans of action. It allows the user to uncover things about the past by supporting the discovery of new information based on mere context clues and will then check the veracity of this information. Once such information about the past is in your hands, the Skill will point to the core lessons to learn from the past and allow these lessons to be communicated clearly and unmistakeably to others. If you also have The Meaning of the Name, these Skills will work in concert to provide superior results for both and it will run subconsciously beside its sibling Skill. In addition, the user gains a mental archive of all information gathered by this Skill. This information takes a few seconds to access if it has been forgotten by the user¡¯s main memory, however. After countless occasions where the user has used this ability to avoid the mistakes of the past from being repeated, this Skill has gained the ability to cause acts of random chance to begin to show people about to repeat mistakes where their actions may lead. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, becoming practically precognitive in its own right when it comes to the lessons of history being ignored. The Meaning of the Name (legendary, Level XXIV) Two Titans. Prometheus, the forethoughtful, and his brother, Epimetheus, whose name means afterthought. One who is intelligent avoids mistakes and traps before running straight into them. One whose hindsight might let him avoid making the same mistake twice, but by that point, the damage will already have been done. It should be clear which is the better thing to have. This Skill grants its user the power held by the Titan that his Class is named after. Preternatural, nigh-absolute foresight, gained by boosting the user¡¯s pattern recognition ability, mental celerity and temporarily granting them the ability to store all that information. This process can be done subconsciously for short-term predictions, such as in combat, but anything longer term will both be more expensive and require active attention. The efficacy of this Skill increases with the amount of information the user has access to, and may produce incorrect results if working off incorrect or incomplete data. While this Skill does check the veracity of the user-provided info by checking it against all other available information, that is of limited use and may slow down the workings of this Skill if prioritized after the foresight itself or be of extremely limited usefulness if the predictions themselves are prioritized. In addition, this Skill also provides the user with enhanced cognition, predicition, and pattern recognition even when not being powered by mana. After countless times when the user has used short-term predictions to overpower their foes in combat, this Skill has evolved to grant its user a weaker yet free version of its short-term effect. And now, this Skill has reached the pinnacle of its power, enhancing the power of free precognition to half its paid-for power. Cost: 20 mana per second for short-term predictions (combat), 50 mana per second for long-term predictions If you also have Lessons of History, these Skills will work in concert to provide superior results for both and it will run subconsciously beside its sibling Skill. Fire Soul (legendary, Level XX) You are fire, all the way down the very core of your being, embodying not just the physical flames themselves, but also the idea of it all. Burning heat, raw destruction, sheer power, creation, alteration, transformation, light, warmth. This Skill empowers your flames and increases their impact on the world. Pre-existing heat, mana in the environment, and all other available energies bend themselves to enhance your flames, lowering the cost of all fire-related abilities by 35%. When you use fire, you aren¡¯t wielding magic, you¡¯re manipulating the world itself, truly altering reality. Your flames grow nigh-immune to standard methods of dispelling and will destroy opposing elements and energies when backed by your will. Not only that, but all your abilities may be infused with flames for a substantial boost, either in terms of raw power or bringing their nature more in line with that of fire (this depends on the ability in question, not all Skills will gain a full boost from Fire Soul). In addition, you gain inspiration on how to creatively use your flames. After countless times when the user has used this power to select the exact correct flame to cause the maximum possible damage to his foes, it has gained the ability to slightly adjust flames to optimize damage for specific foes. Aspects of the End (legendary, max) The End Times. Armageddon. The Rapture. Judgement Day. Ragnar?k. The End of Days ¡­ and everything else. Be it the impact of a gigantic meteor, divine judgement or celestial wars, there are things out there with the ability to destroy worlds. Nothing is safe from such power. Yet it is power that can be used to prevent such calamity from coming about. Blow up the asteroid, broker peace between divine factions (if your sword isn¡¯t at someone¡¯s throat, they won¡¯t listen), or maybe just poke out the eye of the chaos god about to devour the planet (something that is within the abilities of your Class as long as you play your cards right), if you dare. And such power is what this Skill can give you. In its base form, it will merely boost you, doubling your physical Stats and quadrupling your Mana Regeneration while active, stacking (additively) with other boosting Skills. However, this is merely the beginning of what this Skill can achieve. It can be upgraded to achieve specific things, to harness the power of certain world-ending beings. The ancient bird who is so old it¡¯s seen the universe end three times over, the snake that swallows the sun to bring about eternal darkness, the biblical sea beast, or maybe even the dragon that is unleashed upon the world on the heels of the four Horsemen. By drawing upon the power of these mighty beings, even telling a dark god where to shove it is not necessarily off the table. Upon purchase of this Skill, one such aspect will be gained for free (chosen aspect: Speed of Hati), each subsequent aspect must be purchased separately (five Skill points). This Skill can only be activated for a certain span of time every day, but that time can be distributed across the day however the user wants. This time pool refreshes fully exactly twenty-four hours after the time pool was first used. Your time pool is calculated as ten seconds per Level in this Skill. If multiple Aspects of the End are used concurrently, time use is doubled for each one used beyond the original one. By slaying a monster of the end times, you may gain a lesser version of its power, weaker than one the various upgrades that can be purchased for Aspects of the End, but still significant. Should the associated ability have already been purchased, the weaker power is not gained. Furthermore, each unique monster of apocalyptic power killed by the user will increase the time pool by 10 seconds. In addition, at the cost of five seconds, the user may supercharge a single blow to inflict devastating damage. After countless times when the user has used these powers to beat down a Monster of the End Times, when active, this Skill will inflict additional damage to World Bosses, weakening their defenses. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, (retroactively) doubling the gains via World Boss kills. Time Pool 720/720 (+420 second bonus for Monster of the End Times kills) Synergy effect: Undying Wraith The time pool of Aspects of the End can be used to also supercharge Aspects, taking their Skills to new heights. Regeneration that fixes limbs in milliseconds, phasing that allows even mana to pass through without causing damage (within reason), and more can be achieved. Power of the Behemoth (Subskill of Aspects of the End) The mightiest beast of the land, the Behemoth. Eternal, immortal, unstoppable (at least to those whose power does not match those of the gods). This is the power that this Skill grants. While it is active, the bearer¡¯s every footstep can make the very Earth shake and shatter the ground with a single stomp, his every punch create storms and a single sweep of a sword create a shockwave to cleave mountains in twain. But there is more to this Skill than merely brute force. While it is active, it fundamentally alters the way the bearer can apply his physical force. As long as there is a physical medium to transmit them, the shockwaves caused by the user¡¯s movements can be directed and precisely carry along the attack. A fist of air that hits an enemy a hundred meters away from a punch thrown into empty space, a blade of compressed air unleashed by a simple sword-swipe that can bisect mountains, and a simple stomp can shatter underground structures without having to cause an entire earthquake. In addition, when grasping an object, this Skill will help compensate for such things as balance, center of gravity, or structural integrity. Wisdom of the Simurgh (Subskill of Aspects of the End) An ancient being in possession of impossible wisdom, so old it has seen the destruction of the universe three times over. When using this Skill, that wisdom passes onto its bearer, granting them an amount of knowledge no human could ever hope to amass, even given a million lifetimes. The pen is mightier than the sword, and knowledge is what is needed to get the most from one¡¯s pen. Therefore, while this Skill is active, its bearer is the most powerful person in the universe. At least in theory. Speed of Hati (Subskill of Aspects of the End) The moon. It has moved across the sky since time immemorial, eternally chased by a wolf seeking to devour it, never tiring, never slowing, always catching up until the beast devours the celestial body during the end of times. This is the power of a being that can walk on anything, be it solid ground or the empty void of space, move at speeds that exceed the orbital velocity of celestial bodies and devour them whole. While Speed of Hati is active, the bearer of this Skill can walk on anything, gravity¡¯s hold on him is greatly reduced and he has his speed vastly increased. In addition, merely by unlocking this Skill, he becomes is immune to all manner of motion sickness, the negative consequences of moving at high speeds do not affect him and the resistance of medium he is moving through becomes less of a factor (while this Skill is in its active form, medium resistance is completely nullified). Sea of the Leviathan (Subskill of Aspects of the End, gained by killing a Monster of the End Times) The ocean. Deep, unknowable, and a place that makes it almost impossible to fight without highly specific adaptations. As such, dumping someone at the bottom of the sea tends to be somewhat problematic for one¡¯s foes. This Skill summons a 500-meter diameter sphere during which all enemies suffer the negative consequences of being underwater (no breathing without water breathing abilities, weight/resistance of the water, pressure equivalent to a depth of Aspects of the End Level * 50 meters) while granting the user all benefits of underwater combat (swimming in any direction with a body temporarily optimized for underwater existence, ignore all negatives). Primordial Cycle (Subskill of Aspects of the End, gained by killing a Monster of the End Times) Realms of ice and fire, and where they met, a giant was born. And from that giant, a world was born. This is the power of that primordial world. The user may either manifest an icy cold or flaming hot wind, empowering ice or fire-based Skills. Book with Seven Seals (legendary) First, came the white horse, carrying the horseman of Conquest. Second, there was the horseman of War, astride a red horse, followed by the black horse of Famine and the pale horse of death. Then, the souls of the slain righteous cry out, the earth shakes, the sun grows dim, the moon becomes drenched in blood, and the very stars fall to the Earth until finally, the very heavens grow silent. That is when the final battle shall begin. This is how the Book of Revelations describes the end of the world, giving those who would stand against calamity a way to prepare, to read the signs that foretell the coming apocalypse. Those who hold this Skill will receive warnings of future calamity, as long as said calamity is apocalyptic in scale. These warnings may come in the form of dreams, short visions or outright prophecy. These warnings can begin as early as five years before the true beginning of calamity, or grant as little as one month¡¯s warning (this depends on when said calamity becomes nigh-inevitable), and will become increasingly precise and useful with each successive warning. Receiving warnings does not mean that the world is certain to end without the intervention of this Skill¡¯s bearer, merely that Armageddon is a possible outcome. Nor does a lack of warning indicate that a given situation is guaranteed to not eventually develop into an apocalyptic issue, just that it is unlikely. However, there are certain constant dangers, which exist permanently and may become very immediate and present threats depending on the situation. As such, you may receive an initial warnings without subsequent additions which persist on the ¡°active prophecy¡± tab. This is a powerful ability, but also a heavy burden. It will always be active, cannot be deactivated, and will encompass any world that the bearer cares for. Those who hold this ability will never be able to rest, never be able to retire, for there will always be danger so long as the universe exists. Synergy effect: Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit When the user of this Skill is forewarned of a coming calamity, every science and research Skill they possess will be fed the specific kind of information they need. Lessons of History will highlight all information from past apocalyptic scenarios that apply to this one. The Meaning of the Name will continuously gather the information needed to make on-the-spot predictions. And Blessing of Innovation will highlight where further development is needed. Prophecy 1: The Wider Existence A blue orb, lonely, In a universe old, vast Beings unknown live Prophecy 2: Predatory Humanity Apex Lonely Peak New World Order Social Ossification Begets Revolution Beware Call of the Gjallarhorn (legendary) When gods and giants clash, when the dead sail forth from the underworld upon a ship made from the fingernails of corpses, when the Midgard serpent rises from the depths of the ocean and the sun and moon are devoured by a pair of wolves, Heimdall will blow the Gjallarhorn to signal the start of the final battle. The Einherjar will descend from Valhalla and the very gods will go to war for the final battle of Ragnar?k until, at the very end, the Earth lies devastated and the last survivors of gods and humans are able to rebuild while upon the bones of their enemies. Yet being able to rebuild requires one to have won first. That¡¯s where this Skill comes in. Every person willing to honestly fight against an oncoming calamity is boosted by it, gaining Stats equal to the peak of their current Evolution (up to the third), grants them their choice of up to five Skills from any pure-combat Class up to the rare rank and the third Evolution, which they will keep for the full of duration of the conflict. These Skills will then be boosted up to Level 15 and their users will gain the knowledge of how to use them to their greatest effect. People in the fourth Evolution will gain five Levels immediately, but have to pay back the XP debt incurred before being able to continue leveling or being able to receive the benefits from this Skill again. This Skill can be activated once a year, on up to 50,000 individuals per Level of this Skill, but only against threats of apocalyptical nature. In addition, this Skill may clash with Skills that have similar effects, if so, the stronger boosting Skill will activate and the weaker will not function, refunding the cooldown to the user of the weaker Skill. Synergy effect: Hildebrand¡¯s Heir Any person affected by the Call of the Gjallarhorn may choose two of the user¡¯s teachable [Skills] and gain them at the epic rarity and Level 10 Final Defiance (legendary, Level XI) What can one man do against the Apocalypse, one single fragile human against the fury of the very world? Fighting, and subsequently dying well is probably the only thing that most people would be able to do. However, the thing is, there are options to bridge even that gap in power. Cooperation, vast spells on a continental, or even global scale, perhaps even the power of friendship? Eh, maybe those work, but this Skill is a surefire option. It continuously accumulates mana while inactive, growing in power, until it discharges in a single explosive burst when it is needed most, the moment when the fate of the very world hangs in the balance. It cannot be activated for any lesser threats, and automatically triggers in the appropriate situation, discharging all accumulated mana as it runs its course. The rate at which the mana is used can be slowed, possibly even stopped, by the user¡¯s will and determination, but twenty-four hours after this Skill triggers, ninety percent of the remaining mana will be lost. The fuller the pool is, the more slowly it accumulates (halved with every ten percent progress), and the maximum amount of mana in the pool (one billion) would require around a hundred thousand years to reach. When this Skill is active, it significantly boosts the users Stats, regeneration, mana pool, as well as decreasing their foes¡¯ defenses and recovery ability (even if you don¡¯t survive, leave them with a few scars to remember you by, why don¡¯t ya?). Current charge: 77,312,889/1.000.000.000 Synergy effect: Bladewraith While under the effect of this Skill, the user¡¯s attacks will gain a devastating additional effect, becoming able to sever limbs in ways that cannot be regenerated until Final Defiance ends, even damage Skills and hack out Aspects (at a high mana cost). Specter Aspect Ephemeral Phase (legendary) Once you are dead, nothing can hold you down, no weight, no mortal shackle, no nothing. There is nothing that can stand in the way of this Skill¡¯s users, who are capable of walking through walls, floors, ceilings, warded buildings, and more besides. Only direct, heavily mana-empowered attacks can hurt them, and even then, it needs to be a very powerful attack, and the user is able to spend mana to reinforce their form. Furthermore, fighting while fully phased will be perfectly feasible, weapons and other implements of combat automatically becoming tangible when in a position to hurt a foe that the user wants to attack (in that moment, general animosity will not cause trouble). Cost: 15 mana for activation, 10 mana per second of upkeep, upkeep can be increased up to 250 mana per second to resist foreign mana (Einherjar Bonus: massively increased disruption resistance) Ghostly Freedom (legendary) Once you are dead, nothing can hold you down, no weight, no mortal shackle, no nothing. Even gravity will become nothing but a suggestion. By activating Ghostly Freedom, the user will gain the freedom of an ephemeral being, capable of either reducing their mass, or just removing gravity¡¯s effect upon them, as well as the ability to reduce the drag created by the medium they are moving through. Furthermore, the user may telekinetically accelerate themselves, at a constant rate of 5 m/s^2 for a maximum speed of 500 m/s. Cost: 1 mana per second per active effect (environmental resistance nullification, gravity nullification or telekinetic self-acceleration) (Einherjar Bonus: Einherjar Bonus: Increased control, maximum speed increased to 1,000 m/s) Endless Haunting (legendary) Once one is cursed, one is already dead. No barrier will provide relief, no bunker provide succor. The holder of this Skill will become an unstoppable pursuer of their foe, unshakeable, ever-present. 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. Once the user has chosen a target, they can spend another 50 points of mana to mark them (while perceived by the user), gaining the ability to track them precisely so long as they remain within 250 km, as well as knowing the most direct route to reaching them. Cost: 10-200 mana per minute for a passive scan, 100 points per mark per hour (Einherjar Bonus: max range increased to 2 kilometers, max tracking range increased to 500 kilometers) Spectral Touch (legendary) In many cultures, touching the dead is either forbidden or only allowed for certain individuals. While there are many reasons one might want to avoid handling dead bodies, this Skill certainly ranks among the best. When touching a target, the wielder of this Skill will cause the cold of the grave to seep into their very bones, reducing their stamina, capability to resist poisons and diseases, debilitating them after 5-60 seconds, depending on their power relative to the user. At the same time, drained stamina and recovery ability is fed to the user of this Skill. Cost: 100 mana per second (Einherjar Bonus: draining can be projected through weapons) Hydra Aspect Hydra¡¯s Restoration (legendary) Wanna see a magic trick? Here¡¯s a part of my body, now you see it, now you don¡¯t. Where did it go? Why, I chopped it off, of course. And now it¡¯s back! Awesome, right? The Skill allows the user to rapidly regenerate from injuries at the cost of mana. Stab-wounds and cuts are easier to repair than anything that destroys or completely removes flesh. Regenerating large amounts of flesh can be uncomfortable . Cost: 50-1,250 per second of use, 50 mana per kilogram of flesh restored Dismiss Injury (legendary) Getting injured isn¡¯t just painful, it¡¯s also limiting. Even something as simple as damaged abdominal muscles can make standing straight difficult, not to mention the trouble that doing anything with a broken spine causes. While this Skill is active in its normal mode (can be toggled on and off at will), the user is able to completely ignore any and all injuries, but all actions that would be impeded by injuries grow more difficult and draining. Moving broken toe will be about as difficult as picking up one¡¯s phone while moving the same toe with a severed spinal cord might be as difficult as carrying a mountain. However, by paying mana, the user may fashion temporary, phantasmal, flesh that fills in injuries to allow the user to fight at full power. Missing limbs cannot be replaced like that, however, it can be used to bridge missing parts, such as acting as an arm as long as the user¡¯s hand is still present and intact. Up to a quarter of the user¡¯s body can be replaced at once. Cost: 5-50 mana per second Disposable Organs (legendary) Organs are annoyingly important and frustratingly fragile. Sad, but true. This Skill enables its user to ensure that the loss of any single organ would not come with the usual negative consequences by ensuring that all of these organs can take over the function of multiple others in case of damage. Furthermore, this degree of interconnectivity and redundancy enhances the user¡¯s overall metabolism. Adaptive Regeneration (legendary) Getting damaged is a pain. Getting set on fire and being progressively more injured is a significantly worse pain. This Skill ensures that the user will not be washed away in a river of fire or acid, progressively enhancing their resistance to constant sources of damage. For every 1% of the user¡¯s body that is destroyed, the user grows 1% more resistant to that source of damage for 5 seconds, every time additional damage is taken from the original or a similar source (same monster, accelerant of the same type/brand, or spell-type), the resistance is increased and the timer is reset. The resistance is gained at a one-second delay. Cosmic Leviathan Aspect True Environmental Adaptation (legendary) In this universe, there is an almost infinite variety of environments and circumstances, and most of them are exceedingly hostile to human survival. Immense heat, a lack of oxygen, and a whole lot of other issues. This Skill prevents all these issues from affecting the user, including weakening the resistance caused by having to move through mediums of significant density. However, this Skill is ineffective when such issues are caused by hostile action. Charging to Infinity (legendary) The universe is infinitely vast, and light speed is finite. And even then, reaching light speed is physically impossible. However, you can get close. Damn close. This Skill allows one to continuously accelerate while gaining significant resistance to relativistic effects until one reaches 99% of light speed. Cost: 100 mana per second Stellar Travel (legendary) The universe is infinitely vast, and light speed is finite. As such, travelling at any significant speed requires breaching it. Once beyond a sun¡¯s heliosphere, this Skill may be activated to continuously accelerate until one is moving at 100 times the speed of light, after one hour of acceleration. While this Skill is active, one may not affect their surroundings, but it can be disrupted by external action. Cost: 5000 mana per hour Omnidimensional Maneuvering (legendary) Zero gravity, microgravity, underwater, ten-times Earth gravity, and more besides. There are all sorts of environments that one may have to fight in, and combat can vary greatly depending on one¡¯s surroundings. As such, it is vital to have a Skill which, like this one, allows the user to rapidly and completely adapt to environmental conditions. Reality Filter Aspect Perception End (legendary) A world of superhumans is a world of eavesdroppers and voyeurists. This Skill exists to make sure its user can live in this world while retaining their sanity. It allows the user to create a twenty-five-meter diameter sphere in which enhanced senses function considerably more poorly, reducing their effective power by the equivalent of 5 points of Perception per 25 mana invested. In addition, the user may infuse a room with this energy, creating a stationary effect that will last so long as the user does not dismiss it, continues to pay the upkeep cost, and remains within 500 kilometers of the room. The cost is identical to the first effect but increases if the room¡¯s size exceeds 125 ¦Ð m3. Cost: activation cost variable, upkeep cost 1/5 of activation cost per minute Reality Shift (legendary) There are few things more disorienting than having your world suddenly shift around you, be it via teleportation, rapid movement, and the like. By emitting a blast of energy that impacts nearby enemies and disorients them by messing with their senses, the user of this Skill can create this effect with ease. It can even inflict synesthesia or swap the sensory inputs between identical sensory organs. The power of this Skill increases against weaker enemies, as well as those whose Aura has been suppressed. Cost: 250 mana Set Illusions (legendary) There are few ideas more terrifying than the notion that what you see might not be things as they are. This Skill might not be capable of causing such an effect on its own, but it is perfectly able to cause serious disorientation. Its user may choose up to three objects or beings and subsequently be able to freely summon illusionary copies of them. These illusions can be altered with such things as equipment, makeup, or paint, but this requires significant focus. Cost (preset illusion): 25 mana per activation, 2 mana per second of upkeep Free Illusions (legendary) There are few ideas more terrifying than the notion that what you see might not be things as they are. And this Skill allows its user to make that fear a reality, freely creating illusions of anything they can imagine (illusion quality increases with user¡¯s ability to picture what they want to display). However, creating illusions both large and intricate will require a significant degree of focus. Anyone thoroughly overwhelmed by this Skill may forever question their reality for so long as they live, if this attack is properly executed. Cost (direct manipulation): 75 mana per minute per cubic meter Living Sword Aspect Inviolable Blades (legendary) Legendary weapons litter all of history, blades that belonged to kings, and blades that slew said kings. The daggers of assassins that reaped the lives of hundreds. And the works of the greatest blacksmiths, weapons without peer. But unlike those weapons, the blades wielded by the bearer of this Skill will live so long that they outlive even their own legend, becoming rediscovered again and again, becoming enshrined in myht again and again. Holding this Skil all but ensures that the user¡¯s blades will live long enough to remain even as they¡¯re being enshrined in myth and legend by making them vastly more durable and ensuring that they will always be found by a worthy wielder, even past the original wielder¡¯s demise, all the while gaining more and more power as their legend grows. And should against all odds, one of the user¡¯s swords still be destroyed, they will be vastly easier to repair, to the point where complete repair won¡¯t even require either all the original pieces or materials of the required quality, as though the blade wants to become whole again. All-Blade Style (legendary) There are so many possible weapons to pick up, so many styles to wield them in. So many tricks to try, so many stunts to pull. Yet in the end, there are hard limits as to how much can be done at once, how many blades can be wielded simultaneously. This Skill allows the user to not only know where all wielded swords are at all time, it also allows them to telekinetically wield these weapons at range. However, it does not grant a multitasking power, so caution is advised. In addition, proper and safe use of this Skill requires alertness and a lot of practice. Furthermore, the user may pre-infuse their chosen weapons with mana, allowing them to use their weapons without draining their own mana pool. Alternatively, should the weapons in question have their own mana pool (such as soulbound items), that pool may be drawn upon to provide levitation. Cost: 5 mana per second of use per kilogram levitated Annihilating Trails (legendary) Bladed weapons might vastly increase their user¡¯s capacity for murder and mayhem, yet even the greatest of them come with limitations, especially when it comes to fighting multiple foes, or even a single exceptionally fast enemy. These weapons can only be in so many places at once. But this Skill allows you to get around these limitations by granting the user the ability to create traps. Annihilating Trails allows you to leave behind a barely visible trail behind any attack you made, following the movement of the blade¡¯s tip. Anything that brushes against them will be sliced to ribbons. WARNING: These trails are ephemeral energy and will break if struck with too much force. Cost: 5 point of mana per centimeter of trail per second, cost doubles every second of an individual trail remaining Unhindered Bladework (epic) Bladed weapons are a fantastic force multiplier, however, they might be lost, stuck, or stolen. As such, this Skill can be considered as being essential to any true swordmaster at the top of their game. With it, the user¡¯s blades can be easily removed from anything they¡¯re driven into, even solid rock or metal, and can neither be entangled nor gooped up. A simple ability, yet anyone who cannot see the value in it does not deserve to call themselves a swordsman, let alone anything more. Void Dragon Aspect Wings of the Void (legendary) The world is a vast place. The universe is incomparably vaster, and far harder to move through. After all, there is nothing to push against, nothing to walk on, no proper medium to travel through. And, you know, it¡¯s kinda big. The Void Dragon is one of the few creatures capable of traversing this place, it¡¯s great wings hurling it through the vast emptiness. With this Skill, its user will be able to manifest these wings on their back and use them to move and maneuver through space, while also allowing the user to engage ¡°travel mode¡±, which allows them to constantly accelerate without being affected by relativistic effects or the light speed limit, however, this renders you unable to affect the normal world, and you cannot move through solid objects, though gasses and small rocks are pushed out of your path. When travel mode is deactivated, the user will revert to their velocity and direction at the moment of activation. In addition, this effect can be disrupted from the outside. Cost: 100 points of mana per hour of manifestation, 5,000 points per hour of travel mode Star¡¯s Heart (legendary) Within your chest, a star blooms, your every heartbeat an explosion of power that sends fire coursing through your body. Where you tread, the ground turns to lava (toggleable), and if you want something gone, you may enhance the firepower of your flame magic to great heights. And if you wish, you may channel your inner strength into a fire or breath-based attack, overcharging it with mana and even your physical stamina to unleash devastating power. Furthermore, the power of a star empowers your heart, and through it, your very life, extending your lifespan by millennia at a minimum and possibly more, depending on other Skills that may empower/synergize with this one. Scales of the Void (legendary) Cosmic radiation, micrometeorites, various gasses, the odd supernova or pulsar. Space is kinda dangerous when you think about it, even if you somehow figure out a way to breathe in a place devoid of air. This Skill might not help with that last one, but it does with all the others. The Scales of the Void render their bearer immune to all the natural dangers of the void, and grant enhanced heat, radiation and kinetic damage resistance while in outer space. Furthermore, the user may choose to resist external sources of acceleration to avoid being flung about, although doing so can easily cause damage if too much force is nullified. Infinite Mind (legendary) Space is huge. Big enough that trying to wrap one¡¯s mind around the concept is practically enough to give a man an existential crisis. And there are people who want to navigate that place on their own? Are you sure you¡¯re not talking about the incarnation of the Dunning-Krueger effect there? Anyway, that¡¯s what this Skill is about. Firstly, it enables its user to perceive the vastness of space without risk. Secondly, it helps them to navigate space by allowing them to identify individual stars, granting a solid grasp on orbital mechanics, and everything else needed to navigate between the stars. Leviathan Aspect Sea of Damnation (legendary) Thalassophobia is the fear of deep or large bodies of water, such as the ocean, particularly deep lakes, or other vast and unexplorable nastiness. But the definition of ¡°phobia¡± is an extreme and irrational fear. When someone wielding this Skill is angry, that fear suddenly becomes very, very, rational. Up to 50,000,000,000 (50 billion) liters of water around the user can be made to be incredibly dangerous, making falling in a near-death sentence. It can be activated once a week, and will be active for one hour after a five-minute ramp-up period. Aquatic Natural Disaster (legendary) Transcendent Hellflame (legendary) Fire. Fundamental to human civilization, yet at the same time, the thing that has destroyed so much of it, burning down buildings and obliterating knowledge as books and manuscripts are reduced to ash and memories. What this Skill provides ¡­ isn¡¯t fire. It is beyond fire. Transcendent Hellflame is the strongest variant of hellfire that anyone can wield, capable of being selectively targetted at anything the user wants gone, ignoring such petty issues as the target being surrounded by allies/hostages, or even being underwater. As this flame was drawn from the primordial beast known as the Leviathan, it can also be made to completely ignore all forms of water. No lesser flame will be able to injure the user, and none shall survive being struck down with this weapon normally only used by hell¡¯s greatest. Cost: 1,000 per second to generate, 50-500 per second to control, 1,250 to extinguish all fires caused by generated flame Progressive Invulnerability (legendary, four-fold) The true power of a World Boss, that makes them functionally invulnerable to many kinds of attacks capable of taking down titanic enemies. Every time you loose a body part (with skin/muscles/bones, ten percent of total volume), all remaining instances of that body part will take a sixteenth (damage is halved four times) as much damage for the next five minutes, this effect compounds. This Skill can be activated once every month, and will remain in effect for half an hour once triggered. Mantle of Indomitable Scales (legendary) The scales of the Leviathan offer some of the greatest degrees of protection of any natural armor, practically requiring divine intervention to break. This Skill allows the user to cloak themselves in those very same scales, summoning armor that lasts for 24 h or until dismissed. Cost: 1,000 points of mana Space Elemental Aspect True Spatial Warp (legendary) Space. Vast. Infinite. Beyond humanity¡¯s ability to control. Until now. This Skill allows one to wield the power of the universe itself, manipulating the fabric of space and time, warping, twisting, and reshaping it. Cost: variable, 50-1,000 mana per second Cosmos Soul (legendary) All of existence, mirrored in a single point. Your soul. This Skill places you on a wavelength with the universe as a whole, allowing you to sense your surroundings, the flow of energy and gravity as you travel all that there is to see. True Spatial Affinity (legendary) There are countless kinds of magic in the world, some common, the ones that jump to mind when someone says ¡°magic¡±, others less so. Some are veritable mana hogs while others barely take more effort than lifting a finger. But all of them have a way to become easier to use, namely, affinity Skills. Spatial Affinity will grant the user an enhanced awareness of when spatial magic is in play, how to use it better and how to use it better. Better versions of this Skill exist and will grant such abilities as a discount on related Skills (45% discount). Only one Aspect-based True Affinity Skill can be held at a time. And I Shall Not Be Moved (legendary) Spatial magic allows one to do many things that would otherwise be impossible, such as teleportation, spatially expanded containers, and more besides. But none of those things are anything you want turned against you. Yet even should the very foundation of existence be altered, there are those who stand firm in the face of such turmoil, with you being amidst these ranks. This Skill vastly increases your resistance to hostile teleportation and space-warping effects. Ankou Aspect Eternal Restoration (legendary) Death and taxes, the only certainties in life. And one of those is a human construct. Death comes for everyone, eventually. Enemies can be fought, as can disease and even old age itself. But whether it comes in the form of an insurmountable foe, random chance or simple carelessness, everyone dies. And when it does, the Ankou (or some other being that fulfills the same role in another culture) will be there to escort the lost soul across the threshold. But it wouldn¡¯t do for that embodiment of death to carry the damage accumulated across the eons and look like a piece of roadkill, wouldn¡¯t it? This Skill slowly wears down all effects that reduce the user¡¯s capacity to recover and will remove all injuries exactly twenty-four hours after they occurred (anti-recovery effects may still delay this effect). (Einherjar Bonus: Injuries will slowly heal, until the 24h mark, at which point the regeneration will be complete) Freedom from Mortal Limits (legendary) What can mortals do? Jump into a lake that¡¯s even slightly toxic? Nope. Survive even a measly couple of days without breath? Also nope. Get close to the sun without getting fried by radiation? Not even that? Let¡¯s face it, mortals are exceedingly fragile, dying to all manner of stupid things, such as a lack of air, toxins, diseases, radiation, even from their own bodies growing in the wrong way. This Skill grants freedom from all this. Radiation will not affect its user unless it is intense enough to physically burn them, any toxins that have not been created with malicious intent might as well be water and those that were intended as an attack are functionally useless, only diseases specifically built to bypass this Skill will have any affect. The user will never again have to breathe, have issues with an incompatible environment or the like. In short, the only thing that can kill the user of this Skill is an enemy attack, or an extreme accident along the lines of falling into a star. Most ¡°normal¡± causes of death have absolutely no chance of befalling them. (Einherjar Bonus: Aging is slowed by 50%) Implements of True Death (legendary) What is Death? Is the nothingness that comes after one dies? Is it the headless horseman that rides across the fields in the dark and takes the souls of the dead? Or a scythe? Or perhaps some other manner of physical manifestation of the phenomenon? In the end, the true nature of Death does not matter, as it is not a mystery for mortals to solve. What does affect mortals is the many forms it comes in, the devastating weapons that dish it out whenever they are used. At first, rocks and clubs. Then, spears, bows and other worked but still primitive weapons. Swords, crossbows, catapults, muskets, automatic guns, chemical weapons, bombs, nuclear warheads, biological weapons, magic, artifacts ¡­ and finally, the weapons wielded by this Skill¡¯s users. Any weapon wielded by a user of this Skill becomes an implement of Death and strikes devastating wounds. For the first ten seconds, all healing is futile, no matter how powerful. Only a god may save the life of one struck down by this Skill during that time. Once the first ten seconds have passed, self-healing abilities grow useable at vastly reduced power. After thirty seconds, foreign healing effects become useable, likewise at vastly reduced power. And finally, after ten minutes, potions and all other methods of recovery will be able to be used to some small degree. It will take a full twelve hours for the consequences of being struck by this Skill to wear off. Should someone die while under the influence of this Skill, no manner of non-divine resurrection will be able to affect them. Cost: 500 mana per attack (Einherjar Bonus: 1% of this Skill is always active at no cost unless supressed) Reaper¡¯s Cloak (legendary) No one has ever seen the Grim Reaper (at least as far as can be proven). People die every day, though, tens of thousands of them. And each of those deaths should be an opportunity to catch a glimpse of him, yet he remains an enigma. How? This Skill is how. When its user kills an enemy that would provide at least some degree of challenge, they may, once per hour, vanish from sight as if they were held a stealth specialized Class equivalent to their current Level and rarity. This cloak cannot be used to attack under, it will immediately fail, it is meant solely for retreating. It lasts for three minutes upon activation. (Einherjar Bonus: this Skill may be used every thirty minutes) Royal Draugr Aspect Spectral Plate (legendary) Armor. Can¡¯t live without it, literally, but living with it can be a bit of a pain, can¡¯t it? All that maintenance, the effort of putting it on, how it slows you down, and so on, and so forth. Even most manifested armor is not without its share of issues, namely, the manifestation cost. This is a Skill meant to alleviate all that. It uses mana to create armor perfectly suited to the wearer, at a variable cost. At the lowest setting, the armor won¡¯t be particularly durable, but it will be entirely free (maintained by ambient mana). At the highest setting, it can stop a blow that could crack a mountain in half. The user may freely choose how much mana to direct into this Skill for the result most useful for their fighting style. In addition, this armor can be used in conjunction with a physical set for improved protection. Cost: 0-1,000 mana per hour (Einherjar Bonus: free armor is considerably more durable) Endurance of the Eternal Warrior (legendary) War. War and bloodshed without a break, without slowing down, without end. No need for rest, no need for food, no need for sleep. No need for anything other than combat. A user of this Skill has no limits on their physical stamina and while in combat is able to ignore all other bodily needs. (Einherjar Bonus: Mental fatigue is reduced) Loyalty Past Death (legendary) Few good leaders lead from the front. Why? Because that would increase the risk of them dying and the command-and-control network from falling apart. Yet this often leaves leaders watching helplessly from the back as their subordinates are slaughtered. Hardly a pleasant prospect. And that is where this Skill comes in. It can be activated and for the duration of an entire fight, no subordinate who is killed will truly die unless their physical form is annihilated. Once the fight ends, the effect of all wounds will come back in full force, however, as far as the universe is concerned, they will only have died the instant the Skill ends. Cost: 1 month cooldown (max 100 people) or 5,000 mana per subordinate (mana cost can be paid over time and by subordinates) (Einherjar Bonus: anyone who falls while under the effects of this Skill and subsequently resurected may choose to become an Einherjar) Always Armored (legendary) Armor. Nice to have, useful because it can take damage in its wearer¡¯s place. Until said damage wears it down to the point where it is unsuitable to be worn by royalty, or anyone, really. While the aesthetic aspect cannot be helped by this Skill, the loss of efficiency certainly can be mitigated. Whenever a piece of the user¡¯s armor is destroyed, a lesser spectral version of the missing equipment manifest to cover the gap. If the user of this Skill is also in possession of the Skill Spectral Plate, then both Skills will synergize to provide optimal protection, with the replacement armor becoming instantly integrated with the original spectral plate. Always Armored has a variable cost and can be run purely on ambient mana, which will vastly reduce the regeneration rate, or at an extremely high cost for rapid armor repair. Cost: 0-500 mana per hour (Einherjar Bonus: free armor recovery is considerably faster) Aspect of Ymir Burning Storms of Muspelheim (legendary) The power of the primordial realm of flame flows through the user of this Skill, allowing them to manifest a 100-meter sphere of Muspelheim flame around themselves, creating a field of death in which they control all flame. This Skill can either wield Muspelheim flames, or any other flame the user is able to use. Cost: 1,000 mana per second/ double the cost of alternate flames used Freezing Winds of Niflheim (legendary) The icy grasp of the primordial realm of frost flows through the user of this Skill, chilling anything the within a hundred meters the user wishes to damage, all they way down to 5 degrees Kelvin. Cost: 1,000 mana per second Titanic Strength (legendary) Power. Raw, unfiltered power. This is what this Skill offers, sacrificing mana for additional strength, increasing the power of its user based on the amount of mana invested, up to the limits of their mana pool, and stackable with all other boosting Skills, for the duration of a single attack. Cost: 10 mana per 1% boost up to 50%, 20 points of mana per additional 1% boost up to 100%, 30 points of mana beyond that. Aspect of Balor Field of Annihilation (legendary) When the final piece of cloth covering the cursed eye of Balor is removed, the land is reduced to ash. Once per month, the holder of this Skill may unleash the same amount of power for 3,000 points of mana, burning all plantlife and destroying most structures within 1-5 kilometers, depending on the number and durability of available targets. Glare of Obliteration (legendary) When the final piece of cloth covering the cursed eye of Balor is removed, the land is reduced to ash, and any specific target Once per month, the holder of this Skill may unleash the same amount of power for 2,500 points of mana, unleashing a devastating beam of power that can obliterate almost anyone struck. Aspect of Ziz Wings of the Tempest (legendary) When the wings of the legendary beast of the skies beat, even the greatest of humanity¡¯s creations cannot stand their power. This Skill grants the same power to its user, allowing them to either manifest the wings of Ziz, or boost any other manifested wings. In addition, the user may flap their wings to unleash a devastatingly destructive gale. Cost: 15 mana per minute for wing manifestation, 500 mana per wing attack Solar Radiance (epic) Ziz basks in the glow of the sun, soaking in its heat. Anyone near a user of this Skill can experience the same, ranging from the gentle warmth of a spring day to the scorching heat of a desert at noon. This effect spreads through the user¡¯s Aura and can encourage rest, relaxation, healing and plant growth. Cost: 5-25 mana per second General Skills Hunter¡¯s Gaze (epic, Level max) There are many possible upgrades to the basic Inspect Skill. Some allow for improved examination of details, others are far better at piercing information protection Skills. This one is different. It loses any ability to gaze past defenses for raw details unless the defenses are very weak, but gains an incredible power at getting rough information on the user¡¯s foes. Barring an incredible Level disparity, the user will be able to sense whether someone¡¯s Stats are higher, lower or comparable to the User¡¯s, how many Aspects they have and what their overall affinities are. But by using the information gained via this Skill, an Undying Wraith will be able to deduce anything Inspect could grant, and more. In addition, this [Skill] allows the user to see mana and sense the purpose of Skills being used in front of him. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to seek out every secret an enemy held has evolved to see absolutely everything an enemy might try to hide, instantly recognizing passive Skills, all manner of active abilities and slotting them into a newly gained mental library and highlighting any past experiences with similar Skills. Lastly, it gains vastly enhanced Privacy penetration abilities and further grows as the user¡¯s Perception increases. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, able to read the past Skill use of those that would oppose the person wielding the Hunter¡¯s Gaze. The more powerful a Skill, the greater and longer lasting an imprint it leaves in its user¡¯s spiritual body. And the more recently it was used, the stronger and clearer said imprint was. Should a foe have used all their Skills recently, this can be read like a book, figuring out the entirety of their Skillset at a glance. And even should that not be the case, this Skill will still be useful as it provides a vastly improved ability to understand an enemy¡¯s powers and abilities, eventually allowing them to be beaten or countered with contemptuous ease. Unknown Fear (epic, Level max) There are many things that people are afraid of. Mostly, those things are definable, specific things. But there is another kind, the fear of the unknown. With this Skill, the user becomes the embodiment of this fear. An unknowable entity, become fear itself. It will block out any same Level and rarity Inspection Skills as a matter of course and is boosted by any stealth Skill, gaining strength as if it were one Level higher for every two Levels in a stealth Skill. Further power is gained based on Agility. In addition, this Skill may now be used to project a false status when Inspect style Skills are used. However, the user of Unknown Fear does not have true control over what the other person sees, they can only switch between showing them whatever they hope to see, something menacing, or merely a blank fa?ade. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to hide its user¡¯s true nature from warriors and kings, knaves and stalwart defenders of justice, it has evolved to hide even its own attributes. Initially, Unknown Fear merely showed the vast, unknowable abyss to those who dared to Inspect its user, yet that, in itself, could identify them. This kind of all-encompassing darkness is by no means unique to Unknown Fear, but it is hardly a common impression to receive from a failed Inspect. Now, however, whenever the user chooses to take on a different persona, the feedback likewise subtly shifts to the point where it cannot be connected to them. In addition, it will always take on the same feedback type when the same persona is taken up. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, cloaking the user in the darkest of shadows, even under the brightest of lights. When the user is attempting to showcase another persona, pretending to be another, this Skill will actively aid this, impeding the others¡¯ ability to connect both personas. The human mind picks out specific physical details to lock onto for the purpose of identifying individuals, such as unusual height, shockingly bright hair or clothing, or missing limbsst However, this Skill will make details shared across personas less visible while highlighting ones unique to a persona. Well of Wisdom¡¯s Blessing (unranked) Nine Hazelnuts once fell into a well, the Well of Wisdom. A Salmon ate these hazelnuts, gaining all the knowledge in the world. And then, humans hunted down this Salmon for its power, devouring it like the monsters they are. The holders of this Skill gain 75% faster Mana Regeneration. Upgrading this Skill requires the user to kill and eat stronger versions of the Salmon of Wisdom. Enhanced Dragonscale Web (unranked) You are now a dragonslayer, joining a rather exclusive club. But you have taken a step further, not only killing the beast but stealing its power, more specifically, its scales. Not only that, but you have gone one step further, condensing down the power of the scales to the point where overusing them would be actively dangerous, and carefully applied them to your body to keep it together even in the direst of circumstances. Crimson Runic Script (legendary) Blood. The fuel that powers all living things. The fact that it is sometimes referred to as lifeblood just emphasizes this. But your blood can fuel more than just you, The Crimson Script is one such avenue to using this great power, allowing the user to unleash devastating attacks. Tear apart elementals with your bare hands, turn your weapons into implements of doom that will tear apart your foes from the inside if you leave them sticking in their bodies, generate nigh-indestructible barriers (albeit at the cost of your vitality), and more. Gralloch (common, Level X) This Skill is quintessential for a hunter after the hunt is done. It teaches the User how to properly skin and clean a kill, separate out the important and valuable parts and reduces the risk of accidentally damaging any organs. It also points out some basic uses for the harvested parts. Alchemy (common, Level X) When combining things with magical properties, many things may happen, some good, some bad, some just plain explosive. This Skill is a catch all that supports these kinds of pursuits by granting basic knowledge and making its further acquisition easier. It will also highlight useful alchemical ingredients and give information about their most common uses. Death¡¯s Embrace (epic) A hug is nice, isn¡¯t it? The warm embrace of a loved one, assuring you that you are not alone in this world, that you are loved ¡­ yeah, this isn¡¯t that. This is the cold embrace of skeletal arms wrapped around you, bones poking into you as the deathly cold that radiates from them saps your life force. This terrifying effect can be created in one of two ways. The first of these is to infuse you Aura with this Skill, increasing its ability to inflict damage, temporarily reducing an opponent¡¯s regenerative ability and physical Stats upon dealing damage. This has an ongoing cost of 50 mana per minute for the Aura of the Desperate Seeker and 20 mana per minute for the Aura of the Crimson Dawn. The second fills the space around the caster with a dark miasma that weakens any designated enemy to a degree proportional to the amount of mana invested. The target area is a circle with a diameter of 20 meters centered on the user and does not move with them, remaining where it was first cast. This costs 20 mana to activate, as well as thirty mana per minute as upkeep, and will reduce all Stats of affected enemies by 5. Investing an additional 20 points of mana will further reduce your opponents¡¯ Stats by 10. Each set of twenty mana invested beyond that will be ten percent less effective, additively. Cost: Auric Infusion, Aura of the Crimson Dawn: 20 mana per minute Auric Infusion, Aura of the Desperate Seeker: 50 mana per minute Area Debuff: 30 mana to activate, 20 mana per minute of use, more mana may be infused at will Warning: Using two Auric Infusion Skills simultaneously will increase the overall cost by fifty percent Advanced Bureaucracy (uncommon) As the saying goes, money makes the world go round. But what makes money move? Bureaucracy. And that is what this Skill is all about. It grants you a high degree of awareness into the rules that govern what you are doing at the moment (this effect can be toggled on and off), and allows you to integrate your bureaucratical tasks into the System, creating task lists, taking inventory without having to be physically present once it was taken in-person, and so on. But as you continue to hack your path through the jungles of paperwork, this [Skill] is capable of extending to cover new applications. Police Procedure (common) This Skill represents the core knowledge that any member of law enforcement should know. When to exercise caution, in what few situations violence is acceptable, and when, and more importantly, how to exercise restraint. In addition, this Skill acts as a repository for all law enforcement procedures taught to its user, ensuring they are retained and the knowledge is available when it is needed. Healing (epic) The quintessential skills of Doctors, Nurses, EMTs and Medical professionals in general, condensed into a single Skill. Healing allows the user to restore the health and physical well-being of others via touch, as well as the user¡¯s own body. It also helps understand injuries and gauge their severity. Cost: 15-50 mana per second of healing depending on speed, major physical trauma doubles cost, restoring flesh requires 100 mana per kg created Omniglot (common) What is the most important thing in the world when trying to work together with others? Why communication, of course. As Sigmund Freud said, ¡°Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock¡±. The Omniglot Skill facilitates communication in all of its forms, allowing the user to rapidly learn all forms of written, spoken and gesture-based languages (seconds to basic understanding, minutes to conversational level, hours to mastery). In addition, it allows the user to communicate intent along with their actions to avoid cross-cultural misunderstandings. Quest Giver (rare) Quests. Either a staple of role playing games, or something you send a knight on if you don¡¯t want them coming back. This Skill is a little different, though. It allows the user to construct tasks for others to do in exchange for the XP assigned to it. This XP does not have to be spent by the user, it is gathered by the user as they take actions related to leadership and the training of others, then deposited in this Skill where it can only be spent on creating Quests. (these quests cannot be granted to the user) The maximum amount of XP that can be granted is determined by the System and based on the Quest¡¯s objective difficulty. (if you think you¡¯re getting away with something, you¡¯re probably failing to realize the enormity of the task you¡¯re assigning) This Skill¡¯s XP pool is equal to 100 times its Level. Current XP pool: 0/100 Unrestricted Speech (epic) Communication is the very core of not only modern civilization, but any kind of community in general. Coordination is what allows any number of species to transcend the limitations of any one member, and part of the thing that has made humanity so dominant. After all, no matter how clever any single human may be, true innovation can only happen by building upon the work of previous generations. But even the more mundane uses of speech can make an immeasurable difference, facilitating trade and solving conflicts without violence. This is a Skill that allows its users to manifest the greatest possible form of communication, irrespective of their surroundings or noise pollution. As long as the user can survive in a given medium, it will carry their voice as far as air would under standard conditions (Earth, Sea Level, air temperature around twenty degrees centigrade), even in the hard vacuum of space. In addition, when the user raises their voice in situations with significant amounts of environmental noise, their voice will still be clearly understandable, and the most prominent sound to anyone who cares to listen. This Skill is always active. Biomantic Alteration (legendary, unranked) The human body is the product of countless eons of evolution, transforming the earliest vertebrate into an apex predator, wielding both nigh-infinite endurance and an advanced intellect to conquer the world. But nature can only go so far, change so quickly, incorporate only so many disparate ideas. This is where biomancy comes in to do what nature could not. Your body has been enhanced by a master Biomancer at the peak of their power, the Pinnacle Biomanipulator. As such, you have gained the following adaptations: 1. Subdermal Dragonscale-Weave 2. Weak-Point Transference 3. Sight-Spektrum Expansion 4. Hyper-mobile Skeletal Frame 5. Alternate Nerve-Circulatory System 6. Natural ¡°eaponry 7. Sealed Growth Seams 8. Material Substitution Alcubierre Bubble (legendary) The speed of light. In theory, an absolute rule. In practice, well, magic exists. But even when magic is not directly involved, there are ways to ¡­ sidestep the issue. Wormholes, for one. And while no one has built one without the aid of magic, the Alcubierre Drive is also a path to getting around that pesky speed limit. This is the Skill equivalent of that, the ultimate combination of several Aspect Skills (True Spatial Affinity, True Spatial Warp, Wings of the Void, Stellar Travel, Charging to Infinity) allowing the user to warp space-time around themselves to move at speeds that might technically not surpass light speed, but still allows them to win a race against photons. Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range, combat, blood/regeneration) When the System descended, it brought war with it. War, conflict, bloodshed. Some people drowned in it, their lives ending in one of a myriad of horrible ways. Others, though, they survived and rose back up, stronger than ever. A phoenix, rising from the ocean of blood that covers the battlefield and taking flight among the pillars of smoke that rise from the field of corpses, reborn anew in the crucible of blood and steel to take war to take war to the very heavens themselves. This Aura allows the user to wreath themselves in an aura of blood and violence, projecting hardened slabs of crimson energy around themselves, to be used as a means of attack and defense, as well as to enhance the user¡¯s stats by up to 10% (this can be increased through practice). However, while this Aura is active, the user embodies the very spirit of a phoenix emerging from the ocean of blood that covers the battlefield, healing in the midst of a storm of violence, constantly increasing as conflict continues and escalates, and as more blood and more blood soaks the soil underfoot. If the user wants to, it can also show those who sense it the entirety of what the user has killed, demonstrating their power and achievements to all those who would dare to face them on the field of battle. Cost: standard (10 mana per minute), cannot be overcharged with mana, projections cost vary between 5-20 mana per second or spilled blood Aura of the Desperate Seeker (very long range, sensory, mental projection) We all search for things in this life. Money, wealth, power, freedom, those are the common ones. But others seek knowledge instead, be that for knowledges sake, slowly and methodically uncovering all the secrets the world holds, or to achieve some goal, desperately searching for the solution, clawing at the world to make it release its secrets. This Aura embodies the spirits of the latter, of grabbing reality itself by the collar and shaking it until it gives up all that delicious information. It is a sensory Aura that given the user information about anything it touches, and can be focused to further enhance the amount of information it gives. It may also be used in conjunction with Inspect and its upgrades to gain information on monsters and other people without needing direct line of site on them, so long as they are within the Aura¡¯s range. Lastly, this Aura may be infused with the frantic, manic energy of desperation and can be used as a (weak) mental attack. Cost: standard (10 mana per minute), can be overcharged with up to 25 mana per minute to enhance information defense penetration and secondary mental effects. Aura of the Eternal Warrior (mid range, combat/mental/sensory, armament) Fighting, battle, bloodshed. For many, these are but a part of their life, a passing tragedy that nonetheless only takes up a surprisingly small amount of time. A few seconds at the razor¡¯s edge of death, where even a single mistake can be a warrior¡¯s end, and then, it will be decided, one way or another. However, there are those who live in conflict, possibly even for conflict. Those who are eternally striving to beat their foe, be it to chase the high that the risk brings with it or merely as they fight and endless foe and can never rest. These are the people who gain this Aura, to empower them on their endless battles. The Aura of the Eternal Warrior can be wielded as a shield to protect Those within or compressed around the wielder¡¯s limbs to act as a weapon while slowing down the consequences of any injuries suffered. When used offensively, this Aura can bypass most ¡°can only be hurt by a certain thing¡± defenses. Cost: high (25 mana per minute), can be overcharged with mana up to 50 mana per minute for an enhanced effect. Bloodline of the Hellborn Survivor (legendary) The legacy of a warrior who lived through countless battles, countless injuries, countlesstragedies, someone who came through it all completely intact. And That is what this Bloodline represents. As its first holder was a High Human, all others also gain this powerful Race. In addition to this, it grants countless Skills useful to surviving attacks. Firstly, it comes with extraordinary regenerative capabilities, which even extend to injuries to the brain, a separate mana storage to power said regeneration and the power for organs to take over the function of other, damaged ones. And when all of that proves insufficient, the body will temporarily gain the power to ignore nearly all injuries. Starting once theyhave reached the age of majority, they also gain significant resistance to pain. Secondly, the holder of this bloodline has the ability to phase through solid objects, granting them the mobility needed to escape all confinement. Thirdly, it automatically grants a preternatural level of skill with all bladed weapons, as well as stealth. In addition, this Bloodline makes analyzing its holders nearly impossible. However, there is more to this Bloodline than mere survivability. Its holders may wield the very Hellfire that forged its progenitor, but only in the most dire of circumstances, with their parents¡¯ permission, or if they have reached the age of majority. Lastly, anyone in possession of this Bloodline is able to use it to signal distressto anyone else who hold it once a year. (Hydra¡¯s Regeneration, Redundant Organs, Phasing, Unknown Fear, Blades, Sneak, Undying Will, Moment of Immortality, Blades, Sneak, Bestial Regeneration) Apocryphal: What counts? The [System] was finished. Finally. Odin slumped back onto his throne, head resting on the cold stone behind him. For centuries, no, millennia, the universe had been a boring place, with countless planets slowly breaking down as sophonts exploited the natural world at an unsustainable pace until things went past the point of no return. Even his favorite world, Earth, was well on the way to self-destruction. But humans were a clever bunch, eventually, someone would figure out how to convert mana to electricity. Or maybe someone would stumble across his runes. He¡¯d hung from the branches of Yggdrasil for nine days and nights to get them, but he¡¯d made sure that they were findable within the grand creation. It would be fascinating what humanity came up with using them, and sadly, they were hardly in a position to find them themselves. ¡°Finally done,¡± Thor grunted. He was currently lying down on one of the long benches that lined the feast tables of Asgard, looking like death warmed over. The only time Odin had ever seen his son so miserable had been the ¡°ocean mead incident¡±, in which he¡¯d drunk from a mead horn connected to the ocean and downed so much salt water to create the tides. Optimally, he wouldn¡¯t even have been involved, but this was a joint endeavor, which required everyone¡¯s powers. Divine skill and power downgraded into something a mortal could wield, then made accessible to those who proved themselves worthy. Two more days, then the [System] would arrive and the worlds would be forever changed. And their foes had not made a peep so far. The longer they waited to make their countermove, the better prepared the sophonts would be. ¡°Hey, Uncle Odin!¡± Oh ¡­ purgatory. This was the last thing he needed right now. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°What do you want, Loki?¡± Odin sighed as he lifted his head to stare at the irreverent deity. ¡°Oh, I just thought you might want to see the future champion of Earth.¡± ¡°The [System] hasn¡¯t even arrived yet,¡± Odin pointed out. One could try to predict who was going to wind up with the best [Classes] and so on, but that wasn¡¯t what was going to be overly accurate. ¡°A little smarts, a little effort, some more time, and I managed to find the single most capable individual in the universe. He¡¯s closed the gates of hell multiple times, colonized multiple archipelagos and built thriving civilizations in the span of an afternoon, and conquered most of the known world at the head of multiple different armies. He¡¯s going to get legendary [Classes] from the starter [Class] all the way to the fifth Evolution just based on those achievements alone.¡± ¡°Is this one of your jokes?¡± Odin sighed as he returned to his previous relaxed position. Hell hadn¡¯t been open for almost nine thousand years, and there weren¡¯t any immortals on Earth anymore. Of course, he knew Loki didn¡¯t lie, but that was mostly because he felt that being an annoying little shit was too easy if he were able to outright state untruths, so he¡¯d sworn off lying to make it a challenge. But this sounded too fantastical to be true. ¡°Nope,¡± Loki said, blowing and popping a bubble of gum on the ¡°p¡±. ¡°Then show me this ¡®supreme warrior¡¯,¡± Odin ordered, not even bothering to stand up straight. Loki¡¯s nonsense wasn¡¯t really worth it. ¡°Sure,¡± Loki said, creating a holographic image of a young man sitting on a beanbag with a video game controller. He was only slightly overweight, but he still didn¡¯t look anything like an unparalleled warrior. And then Odin caught sight of the game on the screen. It wasn¡¯t one he was overly familiar with, but it looked to be about using heavy weaponry to tear apart the hordes of hell, though most of the demons had a strange array of cybernetic enhancements. ¡°Loki,¡± he sighed. ¡°Video game achievements are not going to count for the [System].¡± Loki raised an eyebrow. ¡°We made sure they don¡¯t count.¡± Loki¡¯s eyebrow crawled off his head to the point where it hovered a couple of centimeters above his head. ¡°Are you sure about that?¡± Odin stared at Loki. Loki stared right back. And after five seconds, Odin bolted for the door. He needed to fix this! Once the big guy was safely out of range, Loki started sniggering. The [System] would indeed count those things, but to such a minor degree that it wouldn¡¯t really make any difference. That being said, Loki had sufficiently muddled the [System¡¯s] waters to a sufficient degree that dear old Odin would be untangling that mess all the way until initialization. Apocrypha 1: Ziz There were a lot of [World Bosses] that could be summoned in the [System]. A lot of resources that could be harvested. But ultimately, the cost to get those resources was astronomical, so humanity hadn¡¯t really farmed them actively. Three times these things had been summoned, three times they had been killed at horrendous cost, three times there¡¯d been furious debate over if the next battle would be on purpose. The Leviathan had cleaned the oceans. Ymir¡¯s essence was terraforming Mars. And when the Earlking had been killed, he¡¯d granted them inner-system fast travel capability via the ¡°fae realm¡±. That last one had been especially annoying to fight, summoning the legions of the fae, phasing in and out of reality until they were eventually killed. At least that particular mess had taken place in Alpha Centauri, at a nice long distance from anything they needed to protect, and for the first time, the sentence for summoning a [World Boss] without permission had been carried out by someone other than the boss itself. It didn¡¯t matter if someone had had a ¡°secret technique¡± or a ¡°surefire way to win¡±, if someone else had to step in and clean up and there had been any possibility of innocents getting caught in the crossfire, summoning a [World Boss] was a capital crime. Anyway, when humanity had tried to expand the fast travel system to the asteroid belt, they¡¯d realized that [World Bosses] could only be summoned once a decade. But humanity had still whipped itself up into a frenzy and that energy had to go somewhere. Getting World Items always cost lives, but the mentality towards them had begun to shift during the planning phase for the Earlking battle. It was no longer about how the world would desperately fight a powerful beast, but about a potential sacrifice for the good of humanity. Anyone who dared step up was guaranteed a massive payday, support for their loved ones in case of disaster and whatever ¡°honored¡± status their home nation provided, be that knighthood, a medal, or something else. Germany in particular didn¡¯t have anything like that, it was a very young country and most of the historical knightly orders and other organizations had been tarred by association with the Nazis. Those fuckers had pulled on every even remotely interesting historical achievement for propaganda purposes, and anything involving them was dicey, to say the least. Some people had even pushed for Isaac to found a new ¡°knightly order¡± of some kind, using his knowledge and position as [Hildebrand¡¯s Heir], but he¡¯d declined. That was not only extremely self-congratulatory, it also sounded like a fuckton of paperwork. All in all, the ¡°I love me wall¡± in Isaac¡¯s office currently looked like a glitter nuke had gone off in front of it. And, of course truth-telling [Skills] would make sure that all those who fought the [World Boss] were volunteers, without being pressured or even just capitulating to general peer pressure. Another thing that had been utterly vital to properly hammer out had been a proper chain of command, which would begin with the military but have people like Isaac on hand and able to throw in their own opinions. Not override the person in charge, that would cause all sorts of issues, but give strong advice, leaving it up to the boss which advice was to be followed. Of course, the leader would be picked on two important traits: not being Ardouin and actually being the opposite of the man. In other words, willing to listen to advice and compromise. Obviously, this still left the issue of certain people being listened to despite not being in charge, their advice being taken as orders, but the situation was messy, no two ways about it. Steps were being taken to make it less messy, but they¡¯d never have a completely smooth run. It just wasn¡¯t in the cards. These battles would almost certainly not end humanity as a whole, and the spoils of war were incredible, however, they could be expensive. Ruinously so. But twenty-five years after the [System] had arrived, humanity summoned the first [World Boss] with the specific intention of killing it for its World Item. Ziz, the Primordial Beast of the Air, King of the Skies, He who blocks the Sun with his Wings. Should be ¡°fun¡±. *** This battle once again took place on Pluto, so that even should something go really wrong, they¡¯d have plenty of time to figure out a solution. Most of the people present without ships were S-Rankers, with the vast majority of those being Generation Zero like Isaac. Not Gen One, Gen Zero, because someone in the UN had gone very much overboard with the classifications. Gen Zero was anyone who¡¯d been an S-Ranker during the Leviathan incident. Gen One was anyone who¡¯d gained the [System] upon Initialization, but became an S-Ranker after the Leviathan had reared its ugly head. People who hadn¡¯t rushed towards the peak at quite such an insane pace as Isaac had, and those who¡¯d taken a longer path to power. For example, one Cameron Smith, nowadays known as Cameron the Calamity, the [Chimera] of Austin. That investment hadn¡¯t paid off in time for the Leviathan battle, but he had reached the heights Isaac had expected him to. In fact, he was currently floating in space a few kilometers from him, Void Dragon wings flapping gently as softly glowing blue eyes raked the surface of the planet. And Isaac knew that beneath his normal-looking skin, monstrous muscles coiled like starsteel cables, and the skin itself was almost as tough as Isaac¡¯s armor. Another example was Wyatt Reyes, whom Isaac hadn¡¯t personally encountered since Singapore. Instead of purely focusing on information gathering as he had in the first timeline, he¡¯d headed down to R¡¯lyeh and poked a whole lot of stuff that really shouldn¡¯t be poked and gained some kind of truly insane eldritch [Class]. Two Grimoires floated before him while some kind of beast floated in and out of reality around him, a constantly varying number of beaks, tentacles, and slavering mouths barely perceptible, only really becoming ¡°real¡± when Isaac wasn¡¯t really paying attention to them. But there were many, many people here with interesting and terrifying powers here. After Gen One, you obviously had Gen Two, which was comprised of people who¡¯d been alive during Initialization but not unlocked the [System], which was what the twins would hopefully become, in time. Gen Three was anyone born after the initization and in a sane world, that would have been the end of it, but there was more. The fourth Generation was comprised of people who¡¯d been born with bloodlines and gained boosts from their parents, while the fifth was basically the same as the fourth, except it was descended from other S-Rankers. Really, calling the S-ranked descendants of S-Rankers the second Generation would have made more sense, but in the end ¡­ bureaucracy. Speaking of bureaucracy, Isaac had gotten a fuckton of requests, ¡°orders¡±, bribes, and more besides, from people asking him to keep specific people safe or, as it were, not safe. For example, both of New Zeeland¡¯s S-Rankers would be here, and some people in its government were very concerned about the situation. With a population of five million, they were well ahead of the standard curve of one S-Ranker per 10 million inhabitants, something they were, understandably, very proud of. But with the nature of [World Boss] battles, that sort of thing could change in a single moment of tragedy. But that particular nation didn¡¯t really have to worry. Especially about the Undying Flame, the first of the pair to reach S-Rank. Rashid Boateng had started out as some type of spell blade based on the phoenix, before shifting his path into something involving celestial bodies and eventually, space itself. Even if Isaac hadn¡¯t known the man to be smart enough to not put himself in an unescapable situation, his build prevented him from falling victim to the trap of drawing aggro you couldn¡¯t survive. Isaac continued to look around the area, taking note of some of the interesting new faces, until things finally kicked off. Seriously, this wasn¡¯t going to be as bloodless as the usual resource-gathering battles. But it was going to happen, and Isaac was damn certain that things were going to be less bloody with him there. ***
Humanity beware, a World Boss has been summoned! Bear witness to his name and tremble: Ziz, Primordial Beast of the Air, King of the Skies, He who blocks the Sun with his Wings This is a monster meant to be an opponent for your entire species, and in your own words, ¡°hang together or hang separately¡±. Good luck!
The warning was the exact same as the last three times, just with a different set of titles. At least this time around, they were a little less dicey than ¡°Living Hellgate¡±. Beneath the summoning circle, the ground shattered and for a brief moment that was all that happened. Scary message, broken ice, and nada on the monster appearing. But then, the ice was vaporized into steam and something began happening to the surrounding space, but it took Isaac an embarrassing amount of time to figure it out. In fact, he wasn¡¯t even the one to first get what was happening. ¡°It¡¯s pulling in every stray bits of gas it can find to form an ¡®atmosphere¡¯,¡± one of the ship captains warned. Ah, that made a disturbing amount of sense. [World Bosses] could normally only be summoned in areas with a compatible environment, yet they hadn¡¯t had one lick of trouble summoning an air beast in an airless void. The process took around five minutes, during which everyone was forced to tensely wait and take the occasional potshot at the active summoning circle that wasn¡¯t actually, you know, summoning. And when it actually completed, it was so sudden that even Isaac jumped a little. Ziz surged out of the circle like water spewing from a Geysir, manifesting within the bounds of the runic drawing and expanding to its true size as he got further from the circle In hindsight, the first line of defenders had been way too close, and that damn bird was way too fast, wrapped in a bubble of gathered atmosphere almost ten kilometers across, barely able to contain the titanic eagle-thing with its eight-kilometer wingspan. Not to mention that the air bubble was a whirl of power and fury, making it almost as deadly as the ocean around Leviathan had been. A wall of lasers, railguns, particle beams and artillery spells washed out from the line of battleships and S-Rankers that had been sitting pretty at a mere hundred kilometers above the surface. Isaac scanned the monster, mentally revising his plan. As expected, Ziz was a massive bird, but he¡¯d thought it would fly in a similar way to the Void Dragon, where it could flap its wings and just go. Instead, it was moving through space by riding on its personal bubble of rending wind, tearing into anything and everything that got just a little too close. The real issue was that having a purely magical means of conveyance meant that the only way to immobilize that fucker was to kill it, there were no real weak points like the joints of the wings that could be targetted to slow it. Regardless, Isaac tried, accelerating using his flames while scanning the monster with [Knowledge Seeker], imbuing his massive Leviathan-tooth sword with [Logos Blade], and finally switched to [Challenger of the Apocalypse] for the final approach. [Speed of Hati] was the non plus ultra for speed, after all. [I Am The Sword] blasted him clean through the beast¡¯s wing joint just in case it had some small effect, making sure to position his actual weapon so that it carved straight through several important tendons. And as he passed through, he triggered his Leviathan armor¡¯s once a day abiltiy to wreath himself in the Leviathan¡¯s fire, scorching the inside of the bird¡¯s body with the wrath of one of its compatriots. It did damage, but not enough. Sure, damage was damage, but the monster was still going to smash straight through the frontlines and reach the artillery platforms and the ships carrying mages behind the frontlines. They didn¡¯t have anything close to the defenses of the ships of the line, or the people capable of easily standing besides these vessels. He¡¯d even used [I Am The Sword] in its ¡°shoving¡± mode, which prioritized imparting momentum over penetration, but the monster was so massive that it hardly do anything. However, what Isaac had failed to account for was that not only was this his fourth [World Boss] battle, it was humanity¡¯s fourth battle. There were people here who¡¯d grown up, or at the very least, grown in Levels, watching those fights and creating plans about what they¡¯d do if they¡¯d been present. For most of them, these were just daydreams, aspirations that would never be reached, but there were those who knuckled down and fought to reach the heights they aspired towards. And a trick whose story had grown to legendary proportions had been the various ¡°Colony Drops¡±. Isaac wasn¡¯t entirely sure where the name had come from, but the idea was solid. Summon a fortress or other large manifestation, and drop in on the bad guy¡¯s head. Not to mention that out in space, you could reach insane speeds before manifesting your shining citadel of light around yourself and bodyslamming the [World Boss] back into the ground. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Lau Kant was an S-Ranker from Argentinia and his regular, ¡°human¡±, form was one of the inhuman Isaac had encountered thus far, being some sort of celestial race that flat out doubled his size, with ashen white skin and deep black hair that shimmered with celestial light. However, none of that was visible at the moment, as he was currently transformed into an immense automaton that strongly resembled an angel, a power core burning in his chest, energy flowing off him in waves. Yet everything paled in comparison to the citadel, which hit with enough force to send the [World Boss] tumbling backwards, ass over appetite, until it hammered into the surface of pluto with enough force to send cracks radiating outwards for dozens of kilometers. And then, Kant began to burn, solar plasma erupting outwards and first scorching Ziz¡¯s feathers, then the flesh below as the area around Ziz took on properties akin to those of a star¡¯s heart. It was inflicting not insignificant amounts of damage, and holding the beast back for now, but it wouldn¡¯t last. It never did, not against a [World Boss]. Things were the same each and every time when a [World Boss] was knocked back on its ass. The first blow landed, the secondary effects came into play, the monster started paying attention to whoever had managed to land the blow and finally brought the full force of its power to bear against whoever had managed to land the attack. Ziz¡¯s wings beat, flexing against the surface of Pluto, ice and rock shattering for dozens of kilometers around, while Kant went flying as if he¡¯d jumped into the universe¡¯s biggest trampoline. ¡°Back!¡± Isaac snapped at anyone who wasn¡¯t already backing away. They had a window for a successful retreat, they needed to use it. A fighting retreat, granted, but they had an entire solar system¡¯s worth of space to play with. And both Earth and Mars were currently on the other side of the sun. They could play the keep away game for a very long time. With an indignant squawk that no one outside the creature¡¯s atmosphere bubble heard, Ziz launched himself back into space as he drew his atmosphere bubble back together. For a long moment, that was how the [World Boss] moved through space, wings spread out in a gliding position as an oblong bubble of gasses and water vapor pulled him along. It would be bad if it reached the ships, but they were already retreating, so it should be fine, right? It. Wasn¡¯t. Fine. The bubble shrank as parts of the bubble were siphoned off and compressed on its leading edge. They were immediately targetted, lasers and particle beams tearing into them and causing the matter packed together to tightly it had become liquid, superheating it and causing parts of it to erupt outwards, but it wasn¡¯t doing much. Nuclear strikes were more effective, missiles slipping into the bubbles and blasting them apart, but even so, they didn¡¯t exactly destroy anything. The projectiles were just compressed gasses that, when scattered, could just be re-compressed. Isaac blasted through Ziz from the side, going after another set of tendons, but that was mostly because he didn¡¯t have anything truly vulnerable to go after. As he flew through, he switched over to his Ymir armor set and unleashed both its fire and froststorm daily abilities, tearing through the monster¡¯s insides. For a brief moment, the [World Boss] stumbled, but it didn¡¯t do anything for more than a few seconds. He was a lot less suited to fighting that thing than he¡¯d been to combatting Leviathan. It was independent of a planetary surface, it couldn¡¯t be knocked about since it was anchoring itself to a bubble under its own control, and it was too massive for him to neatly strike it in multiple spots. Soundlessly, Ziz hurled the hundred-odd air bullets into the fleet, with the projectiles further compressing themselves mid-flight until they tore through the armor of the targetted ships. Once inside, they decompressed explosively and blew massive chunks out of the vessels. The explosions might not be powerful enough to destroy warships outright, but that didn¡¯t change the fact that these ships were primarily armored on the outside. By the time their exterior cracked open and vented the overpressure, vast swaths of the interior had already been obliterated. Having several dozen warships damaged and falling behind would have been bad enough already, but the real issue was what happened next. The air spread out to form massive dragnets that swept through space during their journey back towards the [World Boss], catching small craft and individuals and pulling them into the range of the monster. Mages, aerokinetics and others with the ability to remotely interact with the nets managed to rip open several, and many of those caught within were able to escape as well, but not everyone was able to get out. Claws flashed and the beak snapped, and a few seconds later, they¡¯d had another thousand-odd casualties. Nope, this wasn¡¯t going to work. Due to the limits of the compressed-air bombs, Ziz wound up switching to crescent blades to carve open anything that was too close. Fucking ¡­ whatever. The order to go FTL was given almost immediately. Whoever was in a position to do so jumped a full thirty light minutes towards the sun, but this still left behind a sizeable portion of the army. Currently, there was no such thing as a non-magical FTL drive, all manner of faster-than-light movement was either a ship commander¡¯s [Skill], spatial/teleportation magic channeled through some manner of amplifier built into the ship, or large portals, all of which were specific for a single ship. Nothing that could easily be applied to an entire fleet. Isaac could have easily joined those that successfully escaped, as could multiple others, but they could easily zip off at any point. Those stuck here couldn¡¯t. He was here, with with Boateng, Arthur, Elena, Reyes, and two more he wasn¡¯t too familiar with in his immediate vincinity. The demonic juggernaut, Lan Mercer was one of Australia¡¯s S-Rankers, who¡¯d made enough of an impression for his government to arrange for him to get a full set of Leviathan armor. That being said, he wasn¡¯t currently wearing his helmet, letting his long black hair stream down his back and drape over his black ram¡¯s horns. He was also heavily armed, with two khopeshes hanging from his belt and a greatsword strapped to his back. All in all, it didn¡¯t seem like he was going to do anything with his armament, instead, he was limbering up as though he were about to throw down with the [World Boss]. Which wasn¡¯t too unlikely, as he was the single physically strongest human in the world. Isaac didn¡¯t know which [Class] gave him the power, but he had a [Skill] that allowed to massively increase his physical strength at the cost of mounting strain on his body, to the point where he had a near constant one-third boost and he could whip out far greater blows at a moment¡¯s notice. The second unknown was the Norwegian Aiden Larsen, a dryad with supernaturally perfect features, albeit with a slightly green tinge, a whip-sword loosely held in one hand as he intensely studied the monster. ¡°We need to hold that thing back,¡± Isaac stated. Everyone already knew that, but it didn¡¯t hurt to repeat it. And then, he followed the statement up with a plan as they scattered, peppering the advancing calamity with lighter attacks. Half a minute or so after the big exodus, a single ship returned, appearing with a flash of light as an [Alcubierre Drive] collapsed and normal spacetime reasserted itself. ¡°Well, everyone, get on!¡± Isaac ordered as he turned and went right back for Ziz. He and anyone who cared to help would distract the monster, and the ship would survive the occasional near miss. The Scientia Quaesitor was something that in any even remotely sane world wouldn¡¯t have been in the hands of civilians, but the world had lost its mind a while ago. It was a three-hundred-meter long vessel built for what could be best described as ¡°armed exploration¡±, built by the best very finest engineers of both the university and Camelot, and ownership was shared by both. Thick but lightweight armor plating made from the finest alloys in existence, the best propulsion methods in existence, constantly updated whenever something new was discovered, and a thoroughly enchanted internal structure that could use [Portal], [Alcubierre Bubble] and a wide variety of squad-level movement [Skills] to take the entire vessel FTL made it both fast and survivable. On the offense front, there wasn¡¯t that much, just a massive railgun built into the vessel¡¯s spine, six particle beam turrets with settings for both anti-ship and point defense settings. However, the lacking armament was mostly because the main source of damage output was the crew. This was a vessel belonging to organizations with the planet¡¯s densest concentration of S-Rankers. A casting circle was located at both the bow and stern of the ship, with another dozen spread out across the hull, running down the length of the ship in three rows of four. Even so, they held back to avoid drawing the monster¡¯s ire. For now. Telekinetic magic and portals yanked the stragglers into the Scientia until it was bursting at the seams before it vanished, once again tearing through space at a pseudo-velocity well beyond light speed. At the same time, they¡¯d finally gotten everything into position to use one of the [System¡¯s] strongest creatures as a punching bag. Mostly, they¡¯d gotten people out of the way who¡¯d have otherwise been obliterated. Mercer was the first to make an overt move as he shifted into a massive demonic form, sixty meters tall, with deep crimson scales and a draconic tail whipping out behind him. He might not have had the multiple lives or the full nigh-immortality of a [Raid Boss], but in every other aspect, he might as well be one. He exploded forward using a sword he was telekinetically holding in place as a springboard, his immense demonic power slamming into the weapon to increase his forward momentum. Windblades and airbombs hammered into him one after another, but he always pushed himself back onto the proper trajectory while others began to intercept attacks. For a long moment, he was Ziz¡¯s sole focus, likely only surviving due to his being outside of the air bubble. Then, he reached the monster¡¯s domain, and ¡­ punched it. His muscles bulged and Isaac could feel the immense power being unshackled and poured into a singular attack, which hammered into the immense air domain and shattered it like glass. Isaac¡¯s jaw dropped, he¡¯d clearly underestimated the power of that strike, but his surprise didn¡¯t stop him from sticking to the plan and doing his part. First, Mercer had shattered the air bubble, so Boateng was able to close with the monster¡¯s rear and begin to unleash his power. Deep black armor began to be layered onto him as he drew on his [Void Armor] while dark energy wrapped his blade and space itself tore behind him like the maw of a primordial beast opening. Ziz wasn¡¯t going to go in there by himself, obviously, but Reyes was already at work, space shortening between the monster and the pocket dimension, while Larsen stepped up to the plate, literally. Phantasmal bark manifested briefly as he slipped into a separate world, specifically, the world tree, before he stepped back into the real world right in the monster¡¯s face, with a thick branch appearing underfoot. With a titanic burst of power, the world warped as more and more of Yggdrasil itself came into being, burning with power. Literally, in four spots. One which howled with a freezing wind, the other feeling like a grave, filled with despair and death, a third that rang like steel on steel and the impression of bloodshed, and a fourth that overflowed with life. Spectral armor rapidly flowed over Larsen as the energy began to be condensed into his body. He stood still for a long moment, before striking. Back on Earth, before the [System], ordinary humans had been able to breach the sound barrier on muscle power alone, using a whip. And Larsen was hardly ordinary. His whipsword tore through space almost faster than Isaac could follow, tearing a massive gash across Ziz¡¯s chest while the energy of the world tree followed into the wound, which had already been steaming with freezing and deathly energy before the full might of the attack landed. Ziz went flying, the air-bubble that kept the monster able to maneuver not yet reassembled, through countless slashes that Boateng had carved into space, which tore up the monster¡¯s back. But the real goal was getting the monster into the void space, whose entrance slammed shut behind it. Well, almost. Enough space remained for them to add insult to injury by throwing in a few more attacks. Elena grasped as much water as she could and hurled it away to ensure that Ziz couldn¡¯t gather the vapor again before unleashing [Moonbeam] after [Moonbeam] into the pocket dimension. And Arthur just hurled Excalibur into the hole, repeatedly, carving chunk after chunk out of the monster. After another two minutes, the Scientia Quaesitor came back, with every magic user on the team in the four frontmost casting circles, Karl on the bow circle next to the railgun¡¯s muzzle. Isaac could see the intricate spellwork of Patrick¡¯s, Raul¡¯s [Nature¡¯s Wrath] empowering it, Karl fusing the energy into the weapon and Amy¡¯s ability holding the whole thing together. And then, the ship fired, the entire vessel being flung backwards as a dart made from the single densest alloy currently in existence was hurled at the [World Boss]. Magic crackled across the projectiles for a long moment, until the moment of impact, where they detonated in a burst of tremendous energy. They got more three shots off before the mages were spent, and at that point, everyone was already aboard the Scientia. A damn good thing too, since that was the point when Ziz cracked open the pocket dimension, looking utterly furious. But before the [World Boss] was able to do anything, the ship warped away. *** ¡°¡­ And now we¡¯ve got a fucking [World Boss] loose in the solar system!¡± ¡°As far as we knew, our preparations should have worked, and we still have time to kill it.¡± ¡°But ¡­¡± That was basically how the last three hours had gone, on repeat. Accusation, reasonable response, whiny counterattack. They really should have done this in Alpha Centauri, but as tricky as intra-system FTL travel was, inter-system movement was a million times more difficult. After all, the whole thing was still fully [System]-dependent. There were currently three grades of technology. [System]-dependent, which was where most new developments began, things fully linked to [Skills] and the like. It worked, but was hard to improve upon and the underlying principles weren¡¯t always known. Magitech, which still drew upon mana and enchantments to work, but could theoretically be worked by anyone with a mana pool and the necessary expertise. And finally, the pinnacle of technology, the Null-tech, which functioned entirely on pre-[System] physics because ironically, that was where the magic lay. Because once you could achieve something entirely without magic and arcane materials, you could improve it however you wanted, replacing materials with magical equivalents, layering on enchantments, slapping on [Skills], and everything else one could imagine. In other words, humanity¡¯s FTL capability was currently in the ¡°technically, it works¡± stage, making an extra-solar [World Boss] battle a logistical nightmare. The argument continued, but they did have time. The solar system was vast, Ziz was stuck well below light and if humanity had actually had the chance to plan ahead, they could outmaneuver the beast. *** Attack after attack tore up the [World Boss], particle beams ripping large furrows into its skin while nuclear missiles detonated in the air bubble, sadly inflicting not very much damage. And then, the ships jumped away once more, leaving behind the shattered wrecks of a battleship and two cruisers, which the monster had managed to take out with pre-charged air bombs. There went the last of their expendable munitions. Isaac sighed. They¡¯d done quite a bit of damage, but even so, they¡¯d taken massive damage and were in desperate need of repair and resupply. Modern warships, be they ocean- or space-going, were damn powerful, capable of things well beyond what any ordinary person was capable of. In fact, they could replace anyone below the fourth Evolution when it came to fighting. But they were also expensive, ruinously so, and required fuel, munitions, and countless other supplies that individual fighters did not. Humanity¡¯s mighty spacegoing warfleets were out of this fight. Not destroyed, but still useless. While almost a decade¡¯s worth of space-based development was being systematically trashed, they¡¯d tried to lock up the [World Boss] three more times. It had worked twice, but the last time, Ziz had gone straight for Boateng. Thankfully, the man had had the good sense to not keep going with an already ruined plan, instead chopping up the monster to the fullest degree his powers allowed before skedaddling. *** One light hour. That was how far Ziz had travelled, how long a trail of debris the [World Boss] had drawn through the solar system. And at the end of that trail hung the shredded beast, both eyes finally destoyed for good, looking like a plucked thanksgiving turkey that had been killed by an extraordiarily incompetent butcher. Except this turkey was very much still alive. Alive and angry. However, it was only targeting the ships, anyone able to survive in space on their own was seemingly immune to attack. ¡°Do you think it might be sensing the air pockets?¡± Elena asked after a long moment, causing Isaac to facepalm. That should have been obvious. Leviathan hadn¡¯t been limited too much by loosing his eyesight, but he¡¯d been submerged in his element, capable of sensing disturbances within. Ziz was currently fighting in a hard vacuum and therefore, well, screwed. So they wound up venting the Scientia after securing all technical components and began playing submarine warfare. Shoot the monster, dodge, then shoot it again. They¡¯d hit the monster hard, and it had counterattacked even harder, but now, they had its number. It couldn¡¯t see and, if proper precautions were taken, sense anyone. At least anyone smart enough to stay out of the [World Boss¡¯] air envelope. The few remaining warships joined in, steel platforms were created for mages to use as a base, vacuum-breathing Aspects were handed out, and in time, Ziz would be dead. *** Isaac gazed into the smooth glass marble, its interior glowing blue and filled with clouds. It had been awarded to Amy, but she¡¯d handed it to him so he could inspect it.
Breath of the Sky (World Item) The Boon given to the slayer of Ziz is the gratitude of the sky itself, allowing its holder to reshape the atmosphere of an entire planet, restoring it from its damaged shape. The holder may choose what the atmosphere is restored to, how quickly this change occurs, what parts of the world are restored (up to and including all of them), and what, if any, is excluded from the effect. This is a single-use item, the user will need to set all parameters prior to activation, at which point the item will be destroyed. As a World Item, the Breath of the Sky cannot be stored in any manner of spatial device.
The moment she used this thing, all the crap humanity had managed to blast into the atmosphere would be scrubbed, and the argument about how ¡°restoring the planet¡± was worth any cost, even though the kinds of people who made those arguments were nowhere close the amount of power needed to meaningfully contribute to the fight. This fight had arguably been worth it, but the next one might not be. He sighed. Chances were that the political battles would be worse than the fight that had just been won. But no matter what other decisions were made, no more flying fuckwads in the solar system! Apocrypha 2: Cipactli / Book 7 Release Once more into the fucking breach. Isaac had long since decided that any [World Boss] battles would have to be planned as though he weren¡¯t involved, leaving him free to not attend. He would join, obviously, but he hardly felt like having to clean up after every bad decision humanity made. If it would lead to the end of the world, he would hardly sit idle, but otherwise, he liked his peace. Peace and home. In exchange for terraforming Mars using Ymir¡¯s World Item, Isaac had been granted Olympus Mons in perpetuity, along with a tax exemption and countless other exemptions. So a large chunk of the crater had become a training arena sitting underneath an academy built into the crater wall, while he¡¯d built a palatial home. But he had to admit, he was getting a bit bored by now, and he did want to see what Cipactli looked like. It was a dangerous kind of curiosity, the kind that led to children touching hot stoves and adults winning Darwin awards, but Isaac was one of the few people who could handle the consequences of sticking his nose where it didn¡¯t belong. ¡­ Famous last words. At least this time around, things were happening outside the solar system altogether. In Alpha Centauri, to be exact. A trinary star system, the closest one to Earth and utterly uninhabitable, no matter what you did. Or rather, almost impossible to permanently make habitable. It was a fairly simple issue, known by the equally simple name of ¡°The Three-Body Problem.¡± Simply put, the combination of three stars whirling around each other meant that any planet or other stellar body in that stellar system would have absurdly erratic orbits, flying way too close to stars, or going way too far for sufficient heat to reach them. Making any of the planets present life-bearing would have required a World Item, the Essence of Ymir, to be exact, to create a biosphere that could easily wind up destroyed in less than a decade. Between the proximity to the solar system and the complete absence of anything humanity wanted to avoid wrecking (Pluto had never been quite the same after Ymir and later Ziz), Alpha Centauri was perfect for this kind of shenanigans. And, best of all, the logistics were running completely without his input. Therefore, he had zero paperwork. Or at least as close to zero as was humanly possible. ***
Humanity beware, a World Boss has been summoned! Bear witness to his name and tremble: Cipactli, The First Beast, Monster of Endless Maws, The Hungering Earth This is a monster meant to be an opponent for your entire species, and in your own words, ¡°hang together or hang separately¡±. Good luck! Current location: Planet [name contested] (150 km straight down)
Isaac bit back a laugh at the unexpected sight of the planet¡¯s name. It seemed like the incessant arguing about what to call this world had gotten so bad that even the System had gotten confused. Or at the very least, there was nothing anywhere near definitive enough for it to lock onto. Yeesh. Some poor bureaucrat would get hit by a completely pointless shitstorm after this, but thankfully, that was very much a them problem. Based on the grimaces of the others around him, several people had noticed that too and were trying to keep a straight face and not doing a particularly good job. But most were like him, glaring down at the monster. Cipactli was huge, as immense as the various other [World Bosses] had been, but unique otherwise. The Leviathan had, to use his earlier description, an angry shoelace. Impossibly long yet thin, giving it the appearance of something akin to a weirdly blue spaghetti when viewed from far enough away. Ymir had been a giant, full stop. A big-ass human with grey-ish skin, fire and ice swirling around him. And Ziz had just been a big bird with horrifically effective aerokinesis. But this thing ¡­ Even after all these years of fighting monsters, Isaac wasn¡¯t quite sure how to describe it. Cipactli shared the size with its other [World Bosses], four kilometers long, five if one included the head, and nine if you added the tail. Overall, it resembled a massive crocodile, an enormously thick one, with skin covered in nobs that were halfway between a crocodile¡¯s ¡°humps¡± and the warts of a toad. A fat tail that reminded Isaac of a thresher shark, made for smashing, hung from its rear, a deadly weapon for anyone attempting to attack from that side. The monster had a grand total of six weirdly long, multi-jointed legs whose ends disappeared underground, leaving Isaac unable to see how long they were. All of that, however, was ignoring the biggest, most memorable and eye-catching bodypart of the beast. The mouths. Countless mouths, elliptical, black caverns filled with countless fangs, each completed with a lashing tongue, covered the beast, one on each joint, and a few more dotted around its body at any point that often moved, such as the neck and several spots along the tail. Isaac grimaced. He¡¯d read about those in the various mythological treatises, but it was an entirely different thing seeing them in person. And yet, even they were nothing compared to the beast¡¯s true maw, sitting in the ¡°normal¡± spot of Cipactli¡¯s crocodilian head. It hung open, fangs the size of destroyers ringing a black void that seemed to stretch into infinity, showing more space inside the beast than ever should have been possible, all the way down to a single crimson point miles and miles from the ¡°entrance¡±, yet even that seemed to be infinite, a sea of blood sitting at the heart of the likewise endless space within the primordial crocodile. Cipactli roared up at them, countless maws sending out waves of energy in place of sound, a red wave of force that would likely have been utterly lethal to anyone within a few dozen kilometers. At the distance the humans were hanging out at, it would likely be merely unpleasant, but the people with the relevant [Skills] nevertheless threw up multilayered shields while the offensive portion of the combined armies of humanity returned fire. Miniature meteors, hurled blades, complex curses and spellformations that had taken hours or even days to set up spat death itself, while an entire fleet of the most advanced starships ever built unleashed a technological arsenal never seen until this point. Lasers struck first, rays of coherent light as intense as the sun burning skin and boiling away the flesh beneath. Particle beams were the next to impact, slower by a fraction of time so short that even people with Isaac¡¯s Perception only knew they were slower by logic alone, ripping into the monster more directly, injecting energy deep into the monster. Missiles and railgun rounds were slower, but even more hard-hitting. Demon-blood catalyzed fusion warheads, enchanted Saggitarius-Steel penetrators that weighed almost as much as the ships that launched them, and more exotic and experimental weaponry that was ill-suited for standardization in some way. All the while, Isaac just watched. Observed. Planned. He was still using his [Assassin of the Logos Blade] [Class] for maximum analysis power, [Knowledge Seeker] vacuuming up every scrap of information that presented itself and folding it into the massive Leviathan-bone sword in his hands, which began glowing steadily brighter. He¡¯d already learned everything he could about fish, crocodiles and toads, the animals that comprised the [World Boss], and now, he was drawing on his target for that final push, to create the perfect weapon. Opposing sides of the battle unleashed twin waves of annihilation washed towards each other and for the most part, both were disappointed by the outcome. Cipactli¡¯s energy wave was about to crash into the wall of shields when it was brought up short, its center growing black and being sucked into a singular point, and the rest followed shortly, the massive but now-diffuse blastwave completely vanishing into a spatial pocket. Isaac wasn¡¯t entirely sure where it¡¯s creator was, but he knew who¡¯d done that. Rashid Boateng, the Undying Flame, one of the few space-aligned combat S-Rankers had sucked up the entirety of the initial attack but that wasn¡¯t the end of things. Then, the void began to boil, black nothingness becoming stained red before shifting into something in between, Cipactli¡¯s crimson energy first intermingling then merging with something wholly different, the power of the void itself. Utter. Nothingness. A red-black ray of power lanced back down at the planet, straight towards Cipactli ¡­ who was already in the process of burrowing underground, merging with the planet, having left any attack that wasn¡¯t functionally lightspeed to detonate futility against the surface. That was when the reflected attack struck, blasting apart the immense dust cloud that had been launched upwards by the initial impact, revealing Cipactli just beneath the new surface moments before it struck, leaving the [World Boss] to retreat into the planet with an angry red burn on its back, vanishing from view in short order. Isaac could still tell where it was with his Aura, but trying to reach it down there with his available weapons would do negligible damage. Their opening salvo had been fired and largely dodged, while the monster¡¯s initial attack had been fired straight back into its face. But that was all that had happened, and they were now reduced to this weird standoff. ¡°Now what?¡± Amy asked. ¡°Do we try cracking open the planet?¡± That question prompted a few hushed comments and shocked titters, but after a few minutes, the consensus was that it was a bad idea. It¡¯d waste a ton of energy, and Cipactli could doubtlessly burrow deeper. ¡°There has to be a way to hit that thing without breaking a planet,¡± Patrick finally said. ¡°Monsters can be weird and unique, but they never retreat and dig in completely. Not like that.¡± The planet down below was slowly changing as they spoke, the churned-up rock, beginning to bleed. ¡°Mr. Lerch is right,¡± Professor Kim threw in. ¡°Monsters have their quirks, but their core purpose of providing a challenge to their summoner or summoners is always present. That a beast would retreat until its autonomous summoning triggered or the like runs contrary to the very core of the System. ¡°Therefore, there has to be an end to this process. If not a time limit, then one we can bring about. Dr. Thoma, does your mythological knowledge give you any ideas?¡± It would seem like that statement made quite a few assumptions but she was one of the few people who knew the whole story concerning the System¡¯s origins and restrictions, making her explanation far more accurate than most people realized. ¡°A god sacrificed his foot to lure Cipactli to the surface of the primordial ocean, where the other gods killed it,¡± Isaac explained. ¡°Hey, does that thing prevent regeneration or something?¡± Isaac rotated himself to face the speaker, a strange proposition in zero-g. ¡°Not to my knowledge,¡± he said. ¡°Then I¡¯ll do it.¡± Lau Kant was an enormous celestial humanoid with ashen white skin and pitch-black hair that looked like strands of the void itself, blending in with the surroundings so perfectly it sometimes appeared as though pieces of his head weren¡¯t there. He¡¯d been floating in space up until now, somehow giving off the impression that he was lounging in a comfortable chair even though he was, well, floating in the middle of nowhere with the nearest solid surface several kilometers away. But now that he was taking action, he was starting to exude a dangerous air, of razor-sharp focus and deadly intent. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Kant had already moved past Isaac when he stopped and turned around. ¡°Do you need some time to prepare, or should I do it right now?¡± Isaac sent that up the chain, then passed along the message he got in return. ¡°We need an hour.¡± *** In the end, it had taken a couple of hours to set things up fully, but this should be a truly wonderful one-two punch to get the damn murder-croc out of the blood ocean it was creating on the surface of the planet. Kant would lure the monster and try to keep it on the surface long enough for a concerted effort to catapult it into space. The man known as the Shining Guardian didn¡¯t hesitate in the slightest as he lowered himself towards the bloody ocean, moving with slow deliberateness as he came closer and closer ¡­ until Cipactli exploded from beneath the waves, jaws open to swallow him whole. And bit down. ¡­ It didn¡¯t get anywhere. Instead, its jaws were held open by a shining citadel that had appeared there, rings of teeth surrounding the radiant building, even unable to withdraw and let go. And then, Kant triggered his second [Skill], one that added some variety of hard-to-shift momentum to him, making the citadel yerk skywards, pulling the monster maybe a hundred meters upwards, exposing part of it. That alone was nowhere near enough to do much of anything, getting the monster to the surface was an entirely different achievement than truly exposing it to everyone else, something that had, of course, been planned for. Lan Mercer was an Australian S-Ranked Pugilist whose [Class] was based around demonic magic and power, though the things that were the most important at the moment were his fists. Where logic and common sense went to die. In an instant, Mercer transformed from his regular, slightly demonic humanoid form into a new shape that would have made Demon Lords green with envy. Eighty meters tall, two immense ram¡¯s horns crowning his head, heavy scales covering every inch of his body. Then, he punched the ground, and the ocean exploded, the force echoing into the surface of the water before bouncing back up, hammering into the [World Boss¡¯] stomach and catapulting it skywards, flinging Kant off into the void almost by accident. But even as the monster was hurled almost fifty meters upwards, Mercer collapsed down onto one knee, blood running from between his scales. The flip side of his ability. Isaac didn¡¯t know the specifics, but was aware of the fact that it wasn¡¯t a standard cooldown Skill. Instead, it was something akin to hysterical strength, but well beyond it, capable of letting him massively enhance his Strength Stat to dish out immense damage while putting similarly immense strain on his body, while letting him direct the force in ways that would otherwise have been impossible. And what he¡¯d just done had to be on the absolute top end of what his [Skill] allowed. He was in no position to keep fighting right this moment, but thankfully, he wasn¡¯t required to stare down the boss. Because that was when Aiden Larsen attacked. The tall Norweigian Dryad slipped into the tiny gap between the monster and the surface, triggering his biggest cooldown [Skill]. Yggdrasil manifested around him, the world tree itself projecting itself into reality and unleashing the power of all nine realms into the guts of the beast, launching it several kilometers higher but even as that was happening, Larsen¡¯s entire demeanor shifted, and so did the power washing off him. Another dual [Class] user? Larsen unsheathed his sword and launched himself at the monster, a spectral flood of water manifesting around him, wiping away the bloody ocean that Cipactli was trying to use to drag itself back down to the surface. The monster lashed out with its claws, the maws on the joints attempting to gobble the dryad up but failing utterly as the man dodged with perfect accuracy, betraying a Level of foresight that surpassed even Isaac in the supernatural cognition department. That was when he started cutting, a lash of water following every strike and carving the monsters stomach while imparting more and more energy skywards. Not much, but enough to get the process started. And that was when the next stage hit. Thalia Pathstrider was someone without a clear and defined powerset, someone who could borrow power subsets from countless paths. And in this situation, well, she¡¯d managed to whip up some brand-new orbital weapons systems boosted with more [Skills] than any single person should have been able to tack on. Her flexible path lacked the various threshold bonuses regular [Skills] got, and her experience with any given powerset was lesser than that of someone who specialized, but very few people would have been able to pull something like that off on the spot. Though the heart of her setup was her precognition, her having fine-tuned the entire thing to the point of utter perfection, one salvo following the next, hammering right into the monster in the location the previous salvo had flung it, each and every strike carrying the monster higher and higher. Cipactli briefly became the fourth Sun in the sky as it was lit up from every side and hurled too deeply into space to easily recover. Finally. A way to go after it properly. Isaac launched himself at the monster, half a dozen fireballs appearing above his palm while [Speed of Hati] carried him through space, then flung the energy orbs at the titanic monster. These weren¡¯t normal fireballs, though. This was the version of [Divine Fire] he¡¯d figured while fighting the Leviathan, the compressed fireballs he¡¯d created and registered with the [Skill] so he could whip them out at a moment¡¯s notice. The Promethean Nova. Each fireball flashed into an open mouth and detonated withing, banishing the darkness within and scorching its insides. As threatening as those mouths were to anyone who got too close, they were also gigantic targets. Then, Isaac triggered [I Am The Sword], finishing his charge with deadly intent, leading with the massively enchanted sword built specifically to annihilate the enemy before him. The largest weapon Old Reliable could transform into was a Leviathan-bone greatsword that carved through the hide of the monster as though it were less than even butter, flesh boiling away as energy that was fundamentally antithetical to the struck beast. But that had only been the opening salvo, hundreds of humanity¡¯s strongest followed suit, carving into the monster until it looked like it had gone three round with an alley cat and lost. Unfortunately, that was when something weird happened. Cipactli began to fall. Sure, obviously that was happening, they hadn¡¯t managed to get it anywhere close to escape velocity, but simple instinct told Isaac that it was falling too fast, not to mention all the knowledge [Skills] that confirmed it and the clamor of his allies that had noticed the same thing. Falling faster, no flight ability otherwise ¡­ ergo, gravity fuckery. Ymir had had the same ability, though to a greater degree. Yet neither of them had any mythological connection to that particular enemy. So ¡­ did all [World Bosses] that couldn¡¯t fly have this ability to somewhat be able to navigate. Did the Leviathan? If the Devil Snake had lived more than an hour after being launched into the sky, would it have fallen down onto the Earth as the meteor that had annihilated the dinosaurs had? Isaac shivered. That was a scary thought. The world of the System was like that. It loved to let slip how close you had come to utter, apocalyptic, disaster, after the fact, just to see you squirm. Though there was one man who came in out of nowhere, having clearly seen this as an opportunity. ?rden, just ?rden, the second Argentinian S-Ranker and one of the strongest skill-based fighters in the world. Perfected combat skills, elegant strikes, at least half a dozen absurdly powerful [Skills] boosting his blade as the man launched himself off the surface of the planet, straight at the beast, glowing sword meeting impossibly sharp skin and parting it with casual ease. And then, it was already over, the [World Boss] continuing its descent while blood sprayed from a long diagonal gash that ran across its side while ?rden kept going until he was in space with everyone else. But he¡¯d given Isaac an idea. Getting under the monster was simple enough, as was a weird balancing act that had him brace as many swords as possible against his body, and then, having come to a complete stop relative to the planet below right in the monster¡¯s path, activated [I Am The Sword]. The [World Boss], weighing hundreds of thousands of tons, landed on a free-floating ball of blades that was, for a split-second, utterly immovable. When he¡¯d been thirteen or fourteen, Isaac had once stepped on a particularly pointy piece of lego and screamed so loudly that he¡¯d woken up the entire house, completely unable to stop himself. What Cipactli had to be feeling right now was doubtlessly a million times worse. The only question that remained was whether or not the monster would tip to the side and fall off before his [Skill] ended. And it did. The initial impact had placed Isaac almost a hundred meters deep in its body and when the monster slid off him in less than a second, he carved a bloody path of destruction and fire through it. Then, he had to leg it, because it seemed like most people had taken this as their opportunity to get in the last few blows before the monster vanished beneath the waves again. The [World Boss¡¯] body was wreathed in explosions, flesh cratering and rippling away from the sight of railgun rounds impacting, further ripping apart a badly abused body until it reached the planet¡¯s surface. Cipactli hit the ground like a meteor, the bloody ocean that had dripped back down into the crater by now erupting back into the air, where the droplets transformed into crimson javelins that tore through, everything. Anything that was close enough to get hit got a nice big hole torn through it, starships included. ¡°I don¡¯t think it liked that,¡± Arthur commented. ¡°So we fish it back out again and keep wailing on it until it goes back to hiding?¡± ¡°I think that might have been how the fight is intended to go,¡± Dr. Han suggested. ¡°The monster attacks, retreats back into the ground to prepare the battlefield, then attacks again, over and over until it has either won or dies. I might be able to mess with its retreat somewhat, delay it, but can¡¯t stop it.¡± ¡°What if we worked together?¡± Raul asked. ¡°I can stabilize the surface, you weaken Cipactli¡¯s ability to meld into the planet, and Patrick can ward the ground.¡± That became the core of the plan, but it grew from there. Kant had returned by now, Mercer had recovered, and several mages took the place of the rest of those that had launched Cipactli the last time. Things went smoothly from there, launching the beast skywards while the ground below transformed in its entirety. Red waves became grey rock while the red aura that surrounded Cipactli began to die, and shining runes covered the surface of the planet like an arcane spiderweb. With a tremendous crash no one could hear due to an absence of air to carry the sound, the [World Boss] hammered into the ground, and the battle began in earnest. The beast¡¯s countless maws had chomped apart countless people and starships, energy waves had smashed even more, and the spears of crimson bloody water had done even more damage. But now, it was finally in a place where they could fight it, kill it, annihilate it. And annihilate they did. Down below, the combination of Dr. Han weakening the monster¡¯s effect upon the environment and Raul¡¯s domain of nature was preventing it form pulling any funny business while vines and shifting earth slowed the monster. And up above, immense combination spells were being woven. Amy was, as per usual, wreathed in energy that no normal mage would be willing to touch with a ten lightyear pole, an unstructured mess turned lethal implement under the force of her will, and there were dozens just like her. Though the currently largest and most eye-catching display was courtesy of the other S-ranked New Zeelander. Kofi Boakye, the Luminous Archmage, had taken charge of several hundred light based casters and was fusing the entirety of their power into a massive spinning drill-head formed from hardlight, charging it to the point where it glowed like the sun. And then, it was blasted at the planet, ripping clean through Cipactli¡¯s head, into the brain and continuing onwards into several kilometers of rock, the rotation of the projectile sending blood and brain matter flying. Cipactli roared, rearing up onto its hind legs while crimson energy swelled up from the bloody star that lay at the heart of its bottomless maw ¡­ only for it to start choking on the half a dozen nuclear warheads that General Ardouin had directed there, portals opening inside its wide-open throat to deposit the devastating bombs directly. They continued to pour on the attacks until eventually, the [World Boss] finally fell, ripped into a thousand pieces.
The Rewards Levels are listed below, however, there are some specifics that need to be shared ahead of time: 1. Body Pieces may be either a tooth, scale, tooth-sized piece of bone, 50 Cipactli steaks, 1 liter of any bodily fluid, or 50 m^2 of leather 2. World Boss Aspects must be stacked atop a compatible Aspect, but can override previous Skills if so desired, allowing their recipients to customize how they use their rewards. 3. Regardless of how many people hold each rank of reward, only a maximum of 15 Aspects will be handed out. 4. Level Boosts are not immediate, their recipients will receive them and trigger them whenever they choose to (they will trigger automatically if doing so would push their recipient to the maximum Level of 200).
Infinitesimal: Those who participated but failed to reach any reward higher tiers will receive 100,000 XP
Minor: Those who participated in the battle and contributed will receive 200,000 XP
Small: Those who participated in a way that would be noted as being above average in reports will receive 500,000 XP, half a body piece (own choice), and have a 0.1% chance at receiving an Aspect
Sufficient: Those who have done enough that a million like them together would have been able to beat the World Boss will receive 1,000,000 XP, 1 body piece, and have a 1% chance of receiving an Aspect
Significant: This tier requires one to single-handedly affect the battle in some way, be it by briefly restraining the foe so others may land a solid hit, or landing a significant hit on their own. As such, they will be boosted by 1 Level or 2,000,000 XP, whichever is more, gain 3 body pieces, and have a 10% chance of getting an Aspect.
Massive: Those who will go down in the history books as having helped slay Cipactli are going to be boosted by a full five Levels, receive an Aspect of Cipactli and 5 body pieces.
Decisive: This is a rank that can only be held by a single person per battle. In this battle, this person was one Raul Mina, who exposed the beast and prevented it from returning to the earth. As such, he will receive a boost of 10 Levels, an Aspect of Cipactli, 25 body pieces (24 by his choice, 1 Cipactli Heartblood), and the World Item [Cipactli¡¯s Distilled Fury]. This is an item that can affect the world as a whole, empowering the world as a whole, in ways that may be humanity¡¯s boon or bane.
Raul had gotten first place. Good on him, he¡¯d earned it, though Isaac just hoped he¡¯d get the chance to see the World Item before it was used. *** Isaac glared down at the crimson marble in his palm. Cipactli¡¯s World Item was a weird one, one that might even be enough to safeguard the planet from most casual attacks. But the method was ¡­ concerning.
Cipactli¡¯s Distilled Fury (World Item) The Boon given to the slayer of Cipactli, holding the undying fury of the primordial beast, a hate that destroyed even the gods¡¯ creations before the beast was bound. This anger and fighting spirit can be placed within a planetary body, which then gains the ability to defend itself from any external threat by warping its gravity/magnetic fields, hurling lighting, etc. In extreme cases, well, large threats might find themselves punched by a planet. (Stasis fields will protect the inhabitants and buildings, there will be no damage beyond what is caused by the attackers directly) By default, the collective consciousness of the planet¡¯s inhabitants are what guides the monster, destroying the enemies that threaten the world if so desired. (This desire needs to go beyond someone wanting potential targets to go away or die, true visceral hatred and a willingness to attack given half a chance are what is needed.) This is a set-and-forget item, the user will need to set all parameters prior to activation, at which point the item will be destroyed. As a World Item, Cipcatli¡¯s Distilled Fury cannot be stored in any manner of spatial device.
Well, well, well, this was ¡­ uh ¡­ ever so slightly nuts. Crazy, insane, batshit ¡­ oh, there were about a billion ways to describe that across the roughly five-thousand languages Isaac spoke. The risk of getting punched by a planet should at least deter quite a few potential alien invasions, assuming aliens existed, or if one of humanity¡¯s colonies decided to go mad with power. Though someone could still incessantly throw rocks until the planet was nothing but molten slag, and a World Boss summoned on the planet¡¯s surface would not automatically get yeeted into space by the now-living planet. This thing would get slapped onto Earth in all likelihood, to keep it safe for the rest of eternity, and if someone wanted to protect the rest of humanity¡¯s planets, well, they could damn well kill Cipacti again in ten years, without him. That fight had been insane. What came before ... My name is Isaac Thoma, and unless something goes terribly wrong, this recording will never see the light of day. I don¡¯t want to cause a crisis of faith in anyone who¡¯s been fortunate enough to live in a somewhat sane world up until now. Now, if you¡¯re watching this within a few centuries of this being recorded, you might find most of this superfluous, you¡¯ve learned all of this in school. However, if you¡¯d like some context for everything, well, I¡¯m providing it. But I also know that I can¡¯t guarantee that this information won¡¯t be needed, and considering that, starting two weeks from now, I¡¯ll be off exploring the galaxy, I won¡¯t necessarily be around to share this knowledge myself, I¡¯ll be leaving copies of this recording with several trusted confidants. Fundamentally, there is much more to this universe than meets the eye, and not just in the sense that there will always be something to discover. Gods exist, but they aren¡¯t what you imagine. They¡¯re powerful, but bound by their own rules, split up into three factions. The neutral gods balance themselves, but the others, well, they are split up into a faction that is ostensibly good, and one that is ostensibly evil. And those last two are eternally struggling for control. Anytime one of them takes an action, it disrupts the balance of the universe, and the other is able to take an action of equal gravity. It becomes an eternal chess match of taking action after action, trying to coax the sapient beings of this universe to make things happen without requiring divine action. As far as I know, things were calm for a long time, until the ¡°good¡± side created the System. A way for anyone who wanted to to grow beyond their normal limitations, acquiring magic and supernatural skill if they just put in the effort. And the response was devastating. A simple addition to the System, that allowed its users to summon monsters to kill for experience points and grow at a ridiculous rate while also, well, risking releasing an enemy capable of exponential reproduction if left to roam. Past that, it didn¡¯t even take much. Humans being humans, some people got greedy, others overestimated themselves, and little over ten years after the System initialized, humanity was functionally extinct. ¡°But we¡¯re watching this,¡± you¡¯re probably thinking, and you¡¯re right. Humanity is still around. Because I traveled back in time. A hidden safeguard in the System let me, and only me, try everything again, from the point of initialization. So that¡¯s what I did. I joined a team researching the System, and helped them grow, and together, slowly, we started sharing the knowledge of how everything worked. What enemies were powerful, what enemies could be beaten with a trick, what to focus on, and so on. We provided a way to grow safely. But like I said, humans are humans. It¡¯s not a question of if something stupid will be done, it¡¯s a question of who will be the one to do it. The first big incident was a Stormheart Gestalt that wrecked a large chunk of Los Angeles. We found out that to have been an act of terrorism, aimed at disrupting System research there because trying to understand this ¡°divine gift¡± was considered blasphemy, but that was much later. As far as we knew, it was just someone¡¯s mistake. So we mourned the dead and kept going. A serial killer rose to prominence afterwards, one Arianne Krebs, who lost her husband to a monster that some moron called into being and started to take that out on anyone she perceived as being reckless. Ironically, even though we at Research Team Bailey were panicking, thinking we were about to be attacked, Mrs. Krebs later told me that she considered us to be one of the few sane people in the world. Oh, right, I did get my hands on that police report, combined that with my knowledge of the other timeline, and then led the cops straight to her. She almost killed us, but we managed to arrest her. A couple of weeks after that, we found out about the terrorist organization known as the ¡°Children of the System¡± when they put a bunch of Megalodons in the Bodensee and attacked the rest of the team when they went to investigate, I was babysitting an experiment back home. Anyway, long story short, they inadvertently made themselves known to the world and got pulverized. But that incident did really catapult us to prominence, and half of us went to Seoul, South Korea, to visit the research team of one Professor Kim Yerin, someone who managed to do almost as much as we did without the benefits of future knowledge. Also, to establish a relationship with the Hunter¡¯s Guild, its Guildmaster, Seon Yoo-jin, and start trading for access to the Dungeons they established for smooth leveling. That went well ¡­ until North Korea summoned the world¡¯s first [Raid Boss] in the hopes that it would destroy the South Korean capital. I managed to trap it within a Skill that lets me fight enemies one on one for long enough that a proper defense could be established, and it was stopped, but that was a really bad sign of what was to come.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Though thankfully, North Korea sorta just, uh, imploded afterwards. It was a dictatorship already made unstable by the appearance of the System, and I¡¯m pretty sure that it didn¡¯t take much for foreign intelligence services to rip it apart. And even with how insane things felt at the time, none of us knew how chaotic things would get from then on. Still, there were a couple of good things that happened around that time. I established Akashik Industries, a company that used smart summoning to provide monster materials for other companies, which I used to fund the team¡¯s experiments. And I established a bloodline, as anyone can at Level 50, and the System¡¯s magic made it so that any direct blood relatives could also claim it, if they wanted to. So my parents got access to the hellfire and regeneration that I use, and my little sisters became even worse hellions than they already were. I mean, I love them, but if they were two whirlwinds reincarnated into human form, I wouldn¡¯t have been surprised. So, things stayed like that for a bit ¡­ and then we saw the face of the enemy. Our ¡°true¡± enemy. A small trick from the dark gods, contacting a few people which spiraled into a massive cult convinced that the world was going to end because humanity was going to do something stupid, so might as well just end the world themselves and be rewarded for it. Hell, the only reason they hadn¡¯t done that on day one is because they were given a waiting period of ten years before being able to attack directly or let loose big monsters. Like I said, if gods take actions, an equal and opposite response will be taken, and giving their cultists a delay lessened the ¡°karmic weight,¡± as far as I can tell. But that delay didn¡¯t mean that they weren¡¯t allowed to fight back if we came after them. So when an unrelated investigation stumbled across one of their offices, well, Hamburg has never been the same, but we did find out about our true enemy ¡­ and spent the next several years hunting them down. Of course, when it rains, it pours, and we also got to find a city that drives people mad at the Pole of inaccessibility, complete with explorers robbed of their sanity by their surroundings, fiercely attacking anyone who came near. The city is still there, and using some ¡­ divine means we managed to figure out it¡¯s some kind of artifact, created by some kind of incomprehensible deity who just left it lying there. But eventually, we did manage to conquer the city and promptly left it alone, quarantined. All the while, me and my friends were working together to set up ways to fight and kill bosses to harvest experience and materials safely until eventually, the cult snitched on themselves. Sort of. One of their criminal enterprises got raided by the police, they reacted, the cops called for reinforcements, the cult responded by throwing even more force at the problem ¡­ by the time the dust settled, a city of fifty-thousand people was annihilated and there were a million different threads to pull to find the rest of the cult. Which we did. A few got away, but most were annihilated. Years passed, space got colonized, and so on, but the cult and the danger posed by reckless monster summoning were never not on my mind. You know, if anyone watching this plans on making a space colony, do have at least some legal code in mind when you start. The first time I went to Ceres, I literally had to give the guard a list of everything I was carrying that might be required to be declared, and it was a long one, because not a single item was known as being required to be kept outside. And as for other regulations, well, safety regulations might be a mess, but they¡¯re also written in blood. For most rules, there are probably a few gravestones that can be pointed to as their source. Anyway, that¡¯s just me going off on a tangent. Eventually, we found the cult again, on a single small island in the pacific, and came after them hard. And they summoned a World Boss. The first one, ever. The biblical Leviathan, three hundred miles long, firebreathing, a living hellgate that spat lesser demons. It took us a little over a week to beat and by the time we won, maps had to be redrawn on a global scale, with all of Oceania being gone, as well as the northern coast of Australia, the southern coast of China, the eastern coast of India, even America and Africa caught a few rogue waves. Except we just got a new issue. The fact that every World Boss drops a World Item, which can reshape the world itself, in a single specific way. In this case ¡°The Soul of the Ocean¡± could reshape the entirety of the Earth¡¯s oceans. I used it to fix all the damage humanity and later the Leviathan did, but someone else could have done something a hell of a lot nastier. The cult was gone, and we were generally in a position to take down any monster that showed up. I also started an academy during that time, but then, Ymir was summoned on Pluto. The idea was that with the World Boss stuck at the bottom of a gravity well, all you¡¯d have to do is chuck rocks at it ¡­ and it went about as badly as it could have. But it died, and I got my hand on his World Item, one that could terraform a planet. I chose Mars, in exchange for ownership of Olympus Mons in perpetuity. The nations of Earth couldn¡¯t sign fast enough. In the years since, we¡¯ve summoned a few World Bosses ourselves, planned for any fully thought-out, but nothing went badly. Homeworld Command has quite a few squirreled away somewhere. Eventually, I decided to go explore the universe with my girlfriend, Ms. Elena Hightower. So, that is the true history of the System. The fact that humanity survived while making some of the dumbest choices possible isn¡¯t because we¡¯re so incredible, or superior to any aliens that may or may not be out there, it¡¯s because of literal divine intervention and time travel. And that¡¯s not something we can repeat or count on happened again. Ultimately, if there is one takeaway from everything that happened, it¡¯s this: ¡°don¡¯t be an idiot, use your head, and things will go well.¡± Or, you know, at least not disastrously spiral out of control. Either way, I¡¯m going off to explore the stars with my girlfriend, and if something goes wrong again, I just hope that people know what to do. They should. No matter what the System throws at people, someone should be in a position to do something about it. Nowadays, humanity is spread all over the galaxy, or at least enough planets that no singular disaster can wipe us out. But that doesn¡¯t mean that we no longer need to be careful. Like I said, use your head as something other than a battering ram, and don¡¯t do anything stupid. Sidestory: Der Schnitter 2052, Earth, Akashik Academy Auditorium It had been a long time. A very long time. Decades had passed since he¡¯d entered this room, decades spent in silence as he and those around him stared at the far wall, not speaking, barely blinking, and if they¡¯d had the required self control, they likely wouldn¡¯t even have moved ¡­ Yeah, okay, it hadn¡¯t even been five minutes, Leon could admit that. But his stomach was twisting into knots, and judging by the fact that no one else was talking, the same went for every other person in this hall. Just a bare handful of minutes before, outside, the crowd had been abuzz with nervousness and uncertainty, the chatter from a hundred teenagers and young adults building upon itself to reach an almost deafening volume even though no single person was being particularly loud ¡­ but the instant they¡¯d entered the hall, they¡¯d shut up. And the speech hadn¡¯t even started. It was that important for them all to make a good impression. And they were all ridiculously nervous to boot. Leon did his best to untangle that twisted knot of anxiety and nerves that had seemingly replaced his very heart, only for something to finally change. A portal flashed open behind the lectern on the podium, and a man strode out. Pale white skin, like someone who¡¯d never seen the sun, hair so black it seemed to swallow the light, green eyes that gleamed like emeralds. He was clad in sturdy grey cloth pants and a black polo shirt, with a heavily enchanted bracer clasping his left wrist while a jagged inverted teardrop of bone, fang, and blue scales dangled from a leather cord around his neck, letting anyone who saw it know just what its wearer had accomplished. There was only one person that could be. Dr. Isaac Thoma. The Sage. And possibly, hopefully, Leon¡¯s teacher. That was what they were all here for, after all. A chance to take part in one of Dr. Thoma¡¯s ¡°let¡¯s see what kind of [Class] you get if you do this specific crazy thing¡± experiments. The second one ever, with the first one having taken place decades ago and produced an S-Ranker, Cameron Smith the [Chimera], though more often referred to by his nickname, ¡°Cameron the Calamity.¡± If there was any chance of getting that kind of power, he at least had to try that. ¡°You¡¯re all here because you want to get a powerful [Class].¡± That wasn¡¯t a question, just a simple statement. Thoma stood at the lectern, gaze raking across the crowd. ¡°This is going to be the hardest thing you¡¯ve ever done, and once you start this training, you¡¯re going to be locked into a combat path. You¡¯ll have [Classes] for specialized combat, and you¡¯re going to wind up with even more combat [Classes] if you manage to succeed at what I intend to train you to do. ¡°So, who doesn¡¯t want to actually be here, and grow as a warrior, specifically?¡± No one dared respond. Not by raising their hand, not by saying something, not by doing literally anything else. They just stared silently at the man on the podium, as though he¡¯d committed some act of irredeemable sacrilege. ¡°And who doesn¡¯t care what I teach you, as long as I¡¯m the one teaching you?¡± That got a bigger response, feet shuffling and people glancing guiltily towards the stage before returning their gazes to the ground. No one actually ¡°fessed up,¡± as it were, but Leon could feel the energy in the crowd shifting. Not everyone actually wanted to fight for their power, let alone carry out whatever crazy ideas the S-Ranker had had. But there were those, like Leon, who continued to stare straight ahead, confident, ready for whatever was coming next. Thoma let the general murmuring and discussion continue for almost a minute before speaking for a third time. ¡°You¡¯re all here because you¡¯re driven, but that doesn¡¯t mean combat is where you will, or even want to, excel. If you leave through the door you entered through, you¡¯ll find a very different room than the one you left. I¡¯ve arranged for world-class teachers in smithing, general crafting, alchemy, engineering and magic to post out there, ready to accept trainees or find you a subject of study that fits you like a glove. ¡°So even if you don¡¯t wind up working with me, you¡¯ll still gain a lot from having come here today.¡± The first few people started to file out of the room at that, clearly having chosen to seek their fortune elsewhere. And others were clearly starting to waver too. But Leon knew where he wanted to go, which path he wanted to walk, and where he wanted to wind up when he finally hit the Level cap. If he lost this chance ¡­ he¡¯d go at it on his own and likely get himself killed. Thoma¡¯s gaze once again swept across the much-diminished crowd while his [Aura] faded into the visible spectrum, a grey and rust-red field of energy that looked like it could turn them all into meat paste if its wielder wished them ill. But he didn¡¯t. Instead, it gently reached out and touched half a dozen people in the crowd, tapping them on the shoulder as Thoma made what seemed like his final announcement. ¡°Follow me, please. Everyone else, thank you for coming. You¡¯re all invited to tomorrow¡¯s [Skill] teaching session if you have a [Class]. If you don¡¯t, you¡¯re welcome to join any future sessions once you do, but please do give some advanced warning so I can make sure I have enough uses of teaching [Skill] left.¡± And with that, Thoma swept out of the room through a newly opened portal. Silence reigned for a few seconds before the first of the ¡°chosen¡± stepped forward and marched through the portal. Then the second followed, the third, until finally, Leon stood there, staring at the portal, the place the [Aura] had touched him feeling icy cold yet burning hot at the same time. It was likely just a couple of seconds, but it felt like he¡¯d wasted yet another eternity simply staring, not even truly seeing, just ¡­ looking into the distance as he tried to grasp the enormity of his dreams starting to come true. Then, he took a deep breath, shook off the nerves, and started to march forward, straight through the portal and into an entirely different world. *** The corridors of Akashik Academy were, as far as Leon had seen, always fully decorated with appropriate display cases, artworks, and trophies. Monster parts and weapons near the training rooms, bits of gear in the crafting area, alchemical ingredients in countless small glass cubes formed the window outside the alchemy wing of the main building, and so on. Wherever they were now, they were in some part of the academy not visible to the public, or somewhere else entirely. Everything was of a starkly utilitarian design, smooth concrete wherever you looked, and judging by the utter lack of windows, they were also underground. ¡°Wellcome to Olympus Mons,¡± Dr. Thoma announced as he turned around, arms spread wide. ¡°We are currently half a kilometer underground, in a bunker rated for Tier 8 Raid Bosses. That¡¯s Level 120, for those of you who haven¡¯t memorized the Tiers. I have a special dispensation from both the United Nations and Mars Settlement Authority that says that I¡¯m enough of a safeguard when summoning anything this place can withstand. We won¡¯t be going that high, though.¡± Dr. Thoma waved his hand to his right and vast hologram appeared, showing an abandoned-looking city with a vast trail of destruction burned through it. ¡°This is a small city just north of Seoul, back when North Korea still existed. Some of you might remember it as having been the site of the World¡¯s first [Raid Boss].¡± Leon glanced over at the others who¡¯d been accepted as the excited whispering began. Though he stayed silent and fixed his eyes back on the hologram, which then changed to show three beings. A massive, flame-wreathed demon, then that same demon in a truly pitiful state, its eyes gouged out and entire body utterly covered in wounds and finally, a human so badly burned that it took Leon a couple of seconds to recognize that it was the same man as the person generating the holograms. ¡°The only demon I¡¯d fought up until that point was a Tier 1, Level 1 Imp that had been summoned as a prank in the first week of the System¡¯s existence. See, the cops didn¡¯t really know how to handle it, I offered to help with stuff like that, so I got to drive all the way across town for two seconds of work at three in the bloody morning,¡± Thoma said with nostalgic grin on his face. ¡°But I was offered an epic [Class] after doing, well, that to a single demon lord. I didn¡¯t even kill the damn thing, it kicked my ass. So, that brings me to the question I¡¯d like you to answer: what happens if you kill a [Raid Boss] before you ever reach the third Evolution? And in general, what are the rewards for killing something like that with a near-parity in Levels?¡± Again, Thoma paused to allow for the inevitable muttering and a couple of gasps. But Leon could feel his heart beat faster and a rictus grin work its way onto his face. Obviously, there¡¯d be some kind of safety net, most likely in the form of Dr. Thoma himself, ergo, he¡¯d be able to cut loose with whatever [Skills] he wound up getting. ¡°I¡¯m going to be training you using all [Skills] at my disposal, providing level-appropriate gear, and making sure you¡¯re as safe as you can be when you fight monsters to level up.¡± ¡°What about Aspects?¡± someone asked. Leon only realized it had been him who¡¯d spoken when everyone turned to look at him. ¡°I¡¯ll be helping you to earn your own,¡± Thoma said. ¡°Giving you Aspects you couldn¡¯t earn yourself, including [Raid Boss] items would probably put you out of the running for the [Class] I¡¯m convinced you can earn, and me giving you something that you could earn yourself would just be taking an opportunity for training away from you.¡± The corners of Thoma¡¯s lips quirked up in a slight smile. ¡°Anything you want to fight, I¡¯ll let you fight. Even if it¡¯s something you can¡¯t possibly beat, I¡¯ll let you try in as safe a way as possible.¡± Thoma then gave them a small tour. The elevator to the surface, where their rooms were located, overlooking a lake in the center of the Olympus Mons crater. The training rooms. The armory, the alchemy lab, the potions storage, the actual summoning rooms, and finally, the library. ¡°I know the books don¡¯t seem all that impressive compared to everything else, but I¡¯d like to remind you that many of the most feared S-Rankers are academics. Using knowledge as a weapon doesn¡¯t refer to bashing someone¡¯s skull in with an encyclopedia.¡± Leon sniggered. Thoma hadn¡¯t said ¡°why I am the most feared S-Ranker,¡± but it was clear that was what he¡¯d meant. No one really ranked S-Rankers by power in an official capacity, no publication really felt it was worth potentially attracting the wrath of one even though most of them weren¡¯t that petty or cruel. So they¡¯d turned to another form of ranking. Whom people would like to fight the least. Dr. Isaac Thoma topped those charts, alternating between first and second place for as long as Leon could remember, the enigmatic Sage with the unknowable [Classes] who¡¯d pulled the power to beat on a [World Boss] like a rented mule for several minutes out of nowhere in the battle against the Leviathan. No one knew how to fight him, yet everyone of worth knew that he either had a countermeasure prepared specifically for them, or could whip up in a matter of seconds. And the person he was eternally changing position with was the Ghost, an unknown and unknowable actor on the global stage with a seemingly limitless well of information. Amelia Shaw and Patrick Lerch were usually also up there, immensely powerful, intelligent, and adaptable mages who¡¯d, in fact, come up with Thoma. ¡°Jokes aside, all the information is on the internet too, but if you want a physical book to read, you know where to look.¡± And that basically concluded the tour. ¡°Now, everyone, good night, sleep tight, and if you find any bedbugs, I¡¯ll lend you a flamethrower,¡± Thoma waved them off before launching himself skywards, heading off somewhere. Leon was sorely tempted to gawk, but he knew he had to try and get some sleep before tomorrow. *** The next day ¡­ yeah, the whole ¡°sleep¡± thing didn¡¯t really work out. But Thoma had promised them that they could pick out their weapons in the morning, and excitement had kept Leon up for a frustratingly long amount of time. Still, coffee was a thing and he¡¯d have some Levels under his belt before chronic caffeine consumption would cause actual damage. So he got up, downed one of the energy drinks he¡¯d brought in his bag, got dressed in a sleek gambeson, the best light and flexible armor his family had been able to afford, and left his room. The lodgings Thoma had provided had clearly been designed as shared living space, with six identical rooms upstairs and a large living room-slash-kitchen downstairs, and a large deck stretching into the lake that lay behind it. There was also a front door that led out onto a single road that led off into the distance, likely towards the spaceport. But that wasn¡¯t where he was headed. Instead, he hopped onto the elevator right next to said door and felt it rumble to life. It seemed to be moving quite slowly from his perspective, but knew that was only due to the dampening enchantment, as it reaching the bunker, five hundred meters below, in under a second should have reduced a normal person to strawberry jam. Kinda worrying if you really thought about it, right? But honestly, Leon could have been told the sun would explode tomorrow and it would have only had a minimal impact on his mood. And after a short walk, he was outside the armory, almost half an hour early. ¡°Mr. Schmidt?¡± Thoma¡¯s voice rang out from behind him. Leon nodded. ¡°Would you like me to stick to a formal address, or should I call you something else?¡± ¡°Call me Leon, please,¡± Leon said. He might have been eighteen, but he¡¯d it was still weird to be called ¡°Mr. Anything,¡± let alone from someone like, well, The Sage. In German school, you had the option of asking the teacher to be referred to by one¡¯s family name from the 11th grade onward, but no one had wanted that, teacher or student. Well ¡­ there¡¯d been that one teacher. She¡¯d tried to ¡°prepare them for the real world¡± but then decided to cut it out after two lessons after her dozenth slip-up with several expletives. ¡°Alright, Leon,¡± Thoma nodded. ¡°You can call me whatever you want, Isaac, Dr. Thoma, whatever feels right as long as it isn¡¯t an insult.¡± ¡°Thank you, Dr. Thoma,¡± Leon replied. Adressing a teacher any other way felt deeply wrong. ¡°So, you¡¯re the first one here, would you like to get started, then?¡± Thoma asked, and Leon nodded so vigorously he was half afraid his head would fly off. Thoma just grinned and threw open the door before him with a sweeping gesture. ¡°These are all weapons that you could realistically have at the start of your journey. No magical artifacts that instantly let you beat a regular Tier 5 monster, no masterworks that¡¯ll sink into the ground up to the hilt if you drop them, but you¡¯ll get something like that if you manage to kill the Demon Lord,¡± Thoma offered. ¡°But for now, just pick a weapon. Or a couple. And a backup too, if you want.¡± Leon went straight for the rack of daggers and, after briefly reaching for a stilleto, grasped a Ka-bar. Thick, sharp, solid. A dependable combat weapon that could also be used as a tool in a pinch, and an overall great choice. Even Thoma still had one. Then, he needed to pick the weapon he¡¯d actually be using. Leon had a lot of thoughts about that, actually, he found everything about them fascinating. And there were a lot of weapons here, every single one he knew and many he didn¡¯t. An urumi, a whip sword from southern India, a pata, a gauntlet sword that was likewise from India, every variety of halbeard, countless sword ranging from ¡°short¡± to ¡°taller than he was,¡± regular katanas and the straight katanas wielded by Japanese policemen, then there were the many, many, spears, long ones, short ones, javelins, boar spears with wide and durable crossguards, he even had the goedendag, a Dutch spear club. Near as Leon could tell, there wasn¡¯t even so much as a single weapon he knew that wasn¡¯t also present. Had he been born twenty or so years earlier, he¡¯d likely have wound up as a historian, HEMA instructor, or similar profession that dealt with ancient weapons. Though eventually, he¡¯d come to the conclusion that he was partial to polearms. His ¡°favorite¡± in many ways was the Bec de Corbin, or Crow¡¯s Beak, a long-handled warhammer with a long slim blade akin to a typical spearhead attached above the hammerhead, and opposite the head was a stout spike that the wielder could use like a pickaxe and go through plate armor as though it were mere cardboard. But it wasn¡¯t a good weapon against monsters, it simply couldn¡¯t dig deep enough. The spearpoint would only go in until the hammer and spike hit the monster¡¯s exterior, acting like an impromptu crossguard, and the same went for the spike, once it was deep enough, the spike and pole of the Bec de Corbin would hit the hide and stop dead. A fifteen-centimeter spike punching into a human¡¯s chest would have gone through all sorts of vital organs. A fifteen-centimeter-deep wound on a large monster wouldn¡¯t necessarily even have gone through the skin. But Leon had a different weapon in mind now. A ¡°cousin¡± of sorts to the Bec de Corbin, the billhook. A polearm with a spearhead at the top, and a blade protruding slightly below that while the eponymous hook stuck out on the other side. It was meant to unseat cavalrymen as they rode past, but it could also be used to pull on opponents in general, while the blade could obviously cut, and both the blade and hook were small enough that the weapon could be used as a proper spear against a large enemy with more space between its ribs. Sure, he¡¯d have the devil¡¯s time getting it back out, but he could work on that until he found himself face-to-face with a [Raid Boss]. Or he could have the hook removed for that. Either way, that was the weapon for him. So he picked it up and put on the harness needed to carry it around. Leon was about to leave, but then thought back on what could happen with the weapon getting stuck, so he turned back and grabbed a short sword as well. With that done, he finally returned to the door. ¡°Good choice,¡± Thoma told him. ¡°Wanna try ¡®em out before the others show up?¡± Leon nodded vigorously. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± *** He hadn¡¯t even picked a [Class] yet, but here he was, already squaring off against a monster. Leon grinned, then did his best to wipe the smirk off his face as he drew the billhook, gaze fixed on the summoning circle. ¡°Ready?¡± Thoma called out. ¡°Ready,¡± Leon called back, and the magic circle blazed to life, spitting out an imp. It was only the size of your average monkey, gangly-limbed, red-skinned, and not particularly horrifying compared to anyone who¡¯d seen more than a couple of horror movies. Yet it was dangerous, Leon had known that even before it summoned a fireball into each hand, though that drove the point home rather brutally. Uh-oh. He flung himself to the side to avoid the first ball, but was barely able to bring the billhook up in time to block the second, almost leaping out of his hands from the impact. Shit, that thing hit hard! But Leon got to his feet and charged, hoping to preempt the next ranged attack. And he managed it, barely, the edge of the billhook¡¯s blade cracking into the imp¡¯s skull, but ¡­ bone was tough. The imp went careening away, landing in a tangle of limbs with blood gushing across its face, but it was already getting back onto its feet, with a fireball forming in its hand. Leon took one look at it and just chucked the billhook at the monster. It wasn¡¯t a particularly good throw or solid hit, but it¡¯s point did add another wound to it, disrupted the cast of the spell and bought him enough time to cross the intervening space and drive his sword clean through its gut. The entirety of the fight had barely taken ten seconds, but Leon found himself already sweaty and breathing heavily. ¡°Not bad,¡± Thoma commented. ¡°There are a lot of things you can improve, but you killed the monster, don¡¯t even have a scratch on it and didn¡¯t freeze up at any point. If you¡¯d gone for the throat instead, I¡¯d have given you full marks.¡± ¡°We¡¯re being graded?¡± Thoma laughed. ¡°Marks in the metaphorical sense.¡± Then, he sat down on the floor, crosslegged, and leaned against the wall, all the while fixing Leon with a piercing stare. ¡°Do you know why I walked into the auditorium and gave a speech to select my candidates?¡± he asked. ¡°You wanted to give everyone an alternative?¡± Leon suggested. ¡°You could have used your [Potential Sight] on us at any point.¡± ¡°So, that¡¯s what they think I use, ha,¡± Thoma let out a bark of laughter. ¡°I mean, you¡¯re right about why I gave a speech but no, I don¡¯t see talent. Or someone¡¯s future. Or their potential in general. But I can see who has the spirit to do something like kill a Demon Lord at Level parity. You can reach that point, I know that. But you also have to work hard at it.¡± ¡°Hard work beats talent when talent doesn¡¯t work hard,¡± Leon quoted. Thoma grinned. ¡°Exactly. So, the others are still getting up, wanna go again?¡± Leon just grinned. *** 1 week later
Greetings, Leon Schmidt. Welcome to the System. Would you like to select [Elite Squire] as your class?
Oh, hell yes. Sure, he could have accepted the first [Class] he was offered, but he¡¯d wanted to get something better, which would be easy enough to reach under Dr. Thoma¡¯s tutelage. In his time on Olympus Mons, he hadn¡¯t really interacted with the others, he¡¯d dedicated all his time to training and now, he was getting a rare starter [Class].
Elite Squire
Skills
Weapons Expertise Armor Expertise
Powerful Blow Armorbreaker
Pierce Dash
All-terrain Walk Situational Awareness
Adjust Weapon Summon Weapon
Extend Blade Combat Flow
A whole bunch of useful [Skills], though several of them, he¡¯d be taught by the Doctor the moment Leon told him about getting his [Class]. And then, on to fighting a ton more demons, gain XP, level, and then, finally, get a high rarity anti-demon [Class]. *** 1 month later
Congratulations! You¡¯ve managed to reach the first Evolution Threshold. Based on your current achievements, Skill Levels and Aspects, you have unlocked several new Classes. If these options do not satisfy you, you may choose to leave this screen and continue to rack up more prerequisites, but you cannot increase your Level beyond 10 until you evolve your Class. Here are your possible Class Evolutions:
Resourceful Militiaman (rare) The Resourceful Militiaman is, at his core, a man who sees war merely as a cruel necessity, not as his goal. A man who wields the implements of labor as terrifying weapons of war. This is a Class focused on turning anything into a weapon, armor, or tool, granting its user unparalleled flexibility and resourcefulness.
Demonbane Skirmisher (epic) An army of demons, slaughtered in the blink of an eye, washed away in a halo of light and run through with a holy lance. This is the signature combat style of the Demonbane Skirmisher, using speed and a polearm to rip their enemies apart. This Class offers speed, weapons Skills specialized to the user¡¯s favorite armament and a massive boost to combat against demons, both in the form of specialized anti-demon Skills and regular Skills altered to contain energy with a highly deleterious effect on demonic beings.
Juvenile Speed Demon (epic) All speed, all the time, never stopping, not even when the enemy is already dead, for the Speed Demon will already be dashing off elsewhere. This is a Class based around moving fast, controlling oneself while moving fast, and finally, hitting hard.
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It was a simple choice, really. [Resourceful Militaman] was of a lower rarity and not what he wanted to do, [Juvenile Speed Demon] was epic and fit the speed-focussed fighting style Leon had started to develop but it lacked an anti-demon focus, and [Demonbane Skirmisher] offered not only the speed he wanted, but also the anti-demon power he needed. So, he picked it.
Demonbane Skirmisher
Central Skills
Anathema Holy Lancer
Skills
Inquisitor¡¯s Eye(requires Inspect) Shield of Faith (requires Privacy)
Demonbane Ward Pentagram Seal
Demon Physiology Meteor Throw
Sanctifying Sweep Holy Ground
Purifying Flash Step Angelic Launch
Whirlwind Spin Elite Spearmastery
General Skills
Privacy Inspect
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And he even had enough [Skill] points to grab both Central Skills, which he promptly did.
Anathema (epic) A funny word, isn¡¯t it? A-na-the-ma. Sounds like a cough medicine, right? But it¡¯s a funny word with a dark history, stemming from the utter condemnation of someone by the religious rulers, annihilating their social standing, relationships, and everything else.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. However, this is not a tool used anymore these days, not by anyone save you. In your hands, it is a weapon, a power, an energy that is antithetical to the very existence of all things demonic, your very presence causing them to cower in fear. Your attacks will do vastly increased damage, partially bypass physical defenses, bypass magical defenses to an even greater degree, and any wounds you cause will take longer to heal and have a greater effect on the injured. In addition, attacks by demons or based on demonic magic will do less damage, and be easier to block, especially by pre-set spells. This effect is free but toggleable.
In other words, that Demon Lord would be in an inordinately worse position against him than literally anyone else.
Holy Lancer (epic) Unleash holy power, burn your foes by your very presence and create heavenly lances of pure fury to annihilate all those who stand in your way! Using this Skill, you will gain a 70% boost to Agility and Strength, and a 50% boost to Fortitude, while causing you to emmenate holy light, damaging demons and breaking down demonic magic, with the effect lasting for five minutes. In addition, you may conjure up to five holy lances each time this Skill is activated, in the form of any kind of spear, javeline or polearm. No one but you may use these weapons without your permission. Cost: 2,000 mana, two hour cooldown
And that was his second big power, a cooldown [Skill] that would let him tear his way clean through any lesser demon and most of big bastards too. The [Raid Boss] would still be tough, obviously, but with both [Anathema] and [Holy Lancer] in his arsenal, beating it felt a hell of a lot less impossible than it had even five minutes ago. *** The branding demon, a muscular, humanoid beast the size of a gorilla with white-hot palms, screeched and tried to retreat before Leon had even started to attack. It was Tier 4, had five Levels on him, and [Anathema] was enough to have it quaking in fear. There wasn¡¯t even anything visible, as far as he knew, simply a passive ability that made him do more damage. The demon lunged at him, the air before its hands shimmering with heat, but Leon [Dash]ed a couple of meters to the side and thrust his billhook at its side, briefly relaxing his grip on its shaft to let it glide forward and then holding it tight once more a split second before it would have slipped from his hands, increasing his reach enough that he could not just hit but skewer his foe. Golden light flared in the wound and the demon screeched as its boiling blood spilled onto the floor ¡­ and then it just keeled over. Dead. ¡°Good job,¡± Thoma announced. He¡¯d been in the room the entire time, watching whenever Leon caught sight of him, but Leon was pretty sure the man was reading, doing paperwork, or something similar while watching the fights through his [Aura], then looking up whenever he was in Leon¡¯s field of view. ¡°Thank you,¡± he grinned. Now, on to Tier 5 demons, and slotting some demonic Aspects. He hadn¡¯t done so before, slotting Aspects from a monster you were trying to get a Bane-[Class] against was a bad idea as it would prevent you from getting it unless you¡¯d already gotten that particular bane in a previous Evolution. But now, Leon needed hellfire powers and the accompanying hellfire resistance. Plus phasing, healing, blade control, various undead resiliencies ¡­ right now, Aspects where what he¡¯d be hunting, the needed XP would simply be a byproduct. *** One-and-a-half months later
Congratulations! You¡¯ve managed to reach the second Evolution Threshold. Based on your current achievements, Skill Levels and Aspects, you have unlocked several new Classes. If these options do not satisfy you, you may choose to leave this screen and continue to rack up more prerequisites, but you cannot increase your Level beyond 25 until you evolve your Class. Here are your possible Class Evolutions:
Billhook Savage (epic) Murder is a brutal act. But somehow, using a regular tool to rip and tear your way through your foes somehow makes it worse. This is a Class for those that are worse. The Billhook Savage gains a berserking Skill, the ability to harness spilled blood including all weapons gaining a power boost once covered in fleshly spilled crimson, and knowledge of where to cause maximum pain on your targets.
Unholy Speed Demon (legendary) I. Am. Speed. And you¡¯re dead. The Unholy Speed Demon is an absolute monster of a skirmisher, wielding stolen demonic power as they dash across the battlefield, leaving death and destruction in their wake using Skills meant for doing immense damage while controlling their movement at high velocities.
Demonbane Hellknight (epic) An indomitable dreadnought, a hulking giant clad in armor, annihilating the forces of hell using power stolen from them. The Demonbane Hellknight gains a significant bonus to fighting demons and subsequently gaining additional power from slaying such foes.
Only three [Class] options. Thoma had been right, the single-minded focus on on demon-slaying had massively reduced his pool of available choices, but he intended to take this all the way to the end. When he killed that monster, all of this would be worth it. Something focussed on his billhook would otherwise have been useful, but not under the current circumstances, while [Demonbane Knight] was unlikely to make him tough enough to survive a direct hit from a [Raid Boss] while definitely costing him enough speed to make him taking that hit more likely. Also, it was yet another epic option, while he had a near-perfect legendary option to go for.
Unholy Speed Demon
Central Skills
Bullet Time Hellfire Flash
Skills
Instant Reaction Sure Footing
Passing Slash Prepare Response
Momentum Conversion Absorb Momentum
Desecrate Out of Sight, out of Mind
Hellish Surprise Cripple
Hellfire Sweep Hellstrike Dash
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So, it seemed like taking in all those undead and demon Aspects had practically inverted his ¡°morality¡± in the eyes of the System. Sure, the only ¡°holy¡± thing about him had been the fact that he went after demons, but it as still a very weird thing to see. Still, it didn¡¯t seem like there were any unuseable [Skills] or other incompatibilities, so who cared? Besides, [Anathema] ensured that even if demons had an innate resistance to hell-themed attacks, his would not count as such. Besides, he¡¯d once again managed to save enough [Skill] points to buy the most defining abilites of this [Class].
Hellfire Flash (epic) A flash, and everything before you is annihilated ¡­ as long as you¡¯re within a few meters and bothered to aim. Hellfire Flash allows its bearer to unleash powerful bursts of flame from your hands or feet, with the amount of recoil you experience being entirely under your control. In addition, this Skill is specialized towards mid-air maneuvering and pseudo-flight. This is a cooldown Skill that functions on a charge basis, allowing you to repeatedly use it while it being fundamentally less powerful than most Skills like it. Cost: 1,500 mana per fifteen uses (maximum), 1 hour cooldown for each use (separate)
Free and always available attacks that would also allow him to easily maneuver in midair, oh, it was gorgeous. Sure, Leon could theoretically borrow Dr. Thoma¡¯s ¡°reduce weight to nothing and use fire¡± trick, but that was not only a recipe for winding up kissing a wall (he¡¯d tried), it also cost far more mana than he could spare if he wanted to anything else in combat. But [Hellfire Flash] also had another massive, but more subtle, advantage over generic flame manipulation. Namely, he could use it completely safely in high-speed combat. If he used his control over the [Skill¡¯s] recoil to reduce said recoil to nothing, he could blast enemies at full power without breaking his stride. Unlike every other ability he had, it had absolutely zero chance of unbalancing him.
Bullet Time (epic) There are few feelings as intoxicating as seeing an attack approach and lazily dodging it while driving an attack into your foe¡¯s throat, taking your sweet time to enjoy watching them die. Activating Bullet Time will boost your mental celerity to surpass your physical speed by a significant margin for five seconds of subjective time. Cost: 2,000 mana per ten uses (maximum), 1 hour cooldown for each use (separate)
Once again, not overwhelmingly powerful at first glance, but a game-changing effect he could use repeatedly. Yeah ¡­ this would be fun. Sure, [Unholy Speed Demon] was a little light on the individually strong abilities, but being able to use both of his Central [Skills] several times, for free, would let him pull of some truly incredible stunts. And, of course, he also wound up picking an [Aura]. He had several to choose from, but wound up settling on a sensory one. Situational awareness plus the ability to easily spot weak spots even if they were underneath something ¡­ perfection. His specific version was called the [Aura of the Pinnacle Seeker], which also let him easily find important items and resources in its area of influence. It was the [Aura] option linked to his personality, to be precis, rather than something linked to a [Class], Aspect or achivement. Now if only he could control it so that it would stop showing him all the dirt in the corners of the room, or trying to get a look at Dr. Thoma and getting slapped back by his own [Aura] ¡­ *** 2 months later Two months of non-stop levelling had been brutal, but it had earned him twenty-five Levels, bringing Leon up to the 2nd Evolution cap of 50 and granting him two hundred and fifty Stat points to distribute, on top of the one hundred and fifty he¡¯d gained from various Aspects. Most of the available points went into Agility, with a secondary focus on Perception and Magic Regeneration. Legend had it Thoma used the same Stat spread, but in a less extreme form. Then again, the Sage had been the one to do nearly achieve what Leon was now attempting to replicate, with a far less focussed build. It certainly wasn¡¯t a wrong way to allocate Stats. Three of his fellows had dropped out by now, having decided that, ultimately, they would fail against the Demon Lord. Fighting a Tier 7 Demon for its Aspect had been ¡­ rough. Even with a specialized [Class], a twenty-five Level difference was rough, made all the worse by the fact that after Level 50, the per-Level Stat gains grew So yes, Leon understood their choices, and knew where they were coming from, but honestly, he¡¯d made his own choice the day he chose to accept this offer. He would kill a Demon Lord before his 3rd Evolution, or he would die trying. Though the battle he was about to embark on had no chance of ending in his death. After all, it would be in Dr. Thoma¡¯s training room, the legendary field of blades he¡¯d used to demonstrate just how devastating [Raid Bosses] were against the countless people who¡¯d underestimated them. Leon grinned. None of the many, many people who¡¯d stepped onto the stage of various reality TV shows had had his advantages ¡­ though wasn¡¯t that what they¡¯d all had to have thought either? Either way, he had as many tries as he needed, as long as he kept trying. ¡°Ready?¡± Thoma asked. Leon nodded, and the world was washed away, replaced by grey skies and an impossibly vast field of blades. And a titanic demon stood in the middle of this field, waiting, grinning, its hand already risinig to unleash a lance of hellfire at him. Leon [Angelic Launch]ed himself forward, bringing himself to his maximum speed while shooting beneath the swath of black flame that shot overhead. Even with all his demonic Aspects, a [Raid Boss¡¯] hellfire was still a [Raid Boss¡¯] hellfire. It would have hurt and without his resistance, even being blasted by the heat from the near miss would have injured him. After less than a second, he reached the monster¡¯s feet and began to run up its leg, almost reaching it¡¯s chest before his momentum ran out, but a second [Angelic Launch] threw him up towards its face. Ironically, despite a pair of etheral wings manifesting behind him when he used this [Skill], he could only use it when he had something to kick off of, so he couldn¡¯t use it in midair, but he could use it here. So he found himself in front of the Demon Lord¡¯s face and rammed his billhook into one humongous eye, then unleashed a [Hellfire Flash] into the other one, launching himself back even as the monster tried to crush him against its forehead with one massive palm. But all it achieved was breaking its own nose. Leon grinned as he fell, landing lightly on the ground and spriting straight back at the monster, billhook wreathed in red-gold power carving through its left Achilles tendon before a too-late pillar of hellfire exploded behind him. A kick from the monster¡¯s damaged leg swished past but that just gave him a shot at its intact tendon and severed that too. Oh, this was definitely going well. Keep crippling the monster, slashing through everything it needed to keep going until it was near death, then trigger [Holy Lancer] to finish it off before it could pull off any final, punitive, attacks. Leon grinned as he sprinted away from the collapsing demon ¡­ and then he felt the heat on his back, growing ever higher. Even triggering [Bullet Time] and watching the world around him slowing to a crawl did nothing to abate this, it just kept getting hotter and hotter. He made to turn his head, feeling as though he were stuck in glue, his brain thinking so much faster than his body could move, but before he could achieve anything, the wave of hellfire rolled across his body from behind him. For a split second, he could see the black flames wash over him, then, his eyeballs exploded as the fluid inside them began to boil. And then, he found himself back in the real world, frozen and unable to move for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with any kind of supernatural effect. Thoma stood in front of him, having left his chair in the corner. ¡°Take as long as you need, that was a rough one,¡± he said. ¡°Eventually, you¡¯re going to figure out what works for you when you need to calm down, but right now, just try everything. Personally, I just find myself a challenging fight that¡¯s also doable, and do it a few times.¡± ¡°Why does that work?¡± Leon whispered, voice rough. Thoma shrugged. ¡°Let¡¯s me know that I¡¯m not useless, that I can win fights even if I just lost one badly.¡± Leon swallowed. ¡°And if I just want to take an hour to recover my cooldown [Skills], then go right back to fighting the Demon?¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll let you do it,¡± Thoma said. ¡°If you think you can do it, and you¡¯re in any shape to fight, I¡¯ll let you.¡± It took longer than usual for the grin to appear on Leon¡¯s face, but it did return. *** 1 week later Alright, he¡¯d spent a week getting his rear kicked by simulated monsters, and he¡¯d learned a lot. Tells before it would unleash big flame attacks he needed to get as much distance as possible from, the best places to attack, how long to wait before he started burning cooldowns or freely spending mana ¡­ yet what he hadn¡¯t gained were [Skill] Levels. Not really. Therefore, he¡¯d decided to get serious, and Dr. Thoma had agreed to let him. So now, a titanic summoning circle was blazing on the ground before him and for the first time ever Dr. Thoma was actually looking like he was paying full attention. It hadn¡¯t really been obvious before, he¡¯d always managed to intervene before anything bad happened, but now that he actually seemed to be ready, it was a difference between night and day. A [System] screen flashed in his face as the demon lord emerged but Leon instantly dismissed it, not requiring the information that a [Raid Boss] had, in fact, been summoned since he was looking at the damn thing. Then, he launched himself at his enemy. Regular run to close the distance to conserve mana, wall-run up its leg, [Angelic Launch] once momentum ran out, dual [Hellfire Flash] to burst the eyeballs while carrying him far beyond any response, be it a palm slap or wave hellish flame. In this case, it was fire, but it wasn¡¯t anywhere near long-ranged enough to reach him. He hit the ground literally running and charged at the demon, ramming his billhook into its leg, using [Adjust Weapon] to temporarily melt the hook into the main shaft of the weapon so he could yank it back out and flashed past, avoiding the next attack. Back and forth he ran, the near-endless stamina granted by his undead Aspects empowering him to keep going as black blood began to liberally cover the ground. Until one moment, just a single one, not even a single second in length, he zigged when he should have zagged and found himself face to face with a pillar of hellflame bearing down on him. [Bullet Time] triggered almost without his input and Leon unleashed every single remaining charge in [Hellfire Flash] to get him out of the direction of the attack ¡­ yet he could tell that it wouldn¡¯t be enough. Then, there was a single ¡°boom¡± that shook the entire room while the hellfire was pulled away to a spot behind Leon, revealing a Demon Lord that had been cored like an apple, with a massive hole through its chest. Leon turned around to see the Sage¡¯s right hand sink back to a resting position at his side while all the funnel of flame was covering the entirety of his left side. ¡°You can do this, you know,¡± Thoma commented, a roiling ball of black fire floating above his hand, constantly swirling in a circle around an unseen center and shrinking away until there was seemingly nothing left. ¡°You¡¯re fast enough that you could theoretically dodge everything, and strong enough to kill it. You just have keep playing a perfect game until the monster¡¯s dead.¡± Leon snorted. ¡°I¡¯m serious. As long as you¡¯re willing to keep trying, you¡¯ll have as many attempts as you want,¡± Thoma said. ¡°Sit down, read up on your gains, relax, and when you¡¯re ready, tell me.¡± Leon nodded and himself fall onto his ass, not particularly caring about how dirty he was getting as he looked at his [System] notifications. He¡¯d gained a lot of Level-ups across his various [Skill], but it was [Anathema] that truly became overpowered.
Anathema (epic, Level XX) ¡­ All flame attacks can be converted into holy fire. After countless fights where the user has obliterated demons as is their duty, this Skill has evolved cause lingering damage in all foes it injures, damage scales with severity of target¡¯s demonic nature.
So yeah, that had been terrifying and all, but he¡¯d lived, he¡¯d grown, and was more than willing to keep going. *** Blood spattered as the Demon Lord¡¯s chopped-off hand hit the ground but Leon could feel what seemed like every bone in his body break as its foot struck him. *** A curtain of hellfire was pulled away from his face, but by that time, his eyes had already been burned out of his skull. *** Leon lay on his stomach, trying to hold in his intestines as he saw the Demon Lord die with his own eyes for the first time as Dr. Thoma¡¯s glowing blade was hurled clean through its chest with raw strength alone. ***
Anathema (epic, Level max) ¡­ And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, granting a regenerating magic shield against demonic attacks powered by ambient mana.
Holy Lancer (epic, Level max) ¡­ Your Skill will now give you an 85% (previously 70%) boost to Agility in Strength, further increased to 95% when facing demons. After countless times when the user has stood their ground against demons vastly more powerful than they are, this Skill has evolved automatically launch small flechettes of holy light at all nearby demonic entities. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, granting the user a set of holy armor specially forged for their fighting style, including wings for limited gliding ability.
Bullet Time (epic, Level max) ¡­ Bullet Time will now boost mental celerity for ten seconds of subjective time (previously five) After countless times when the user has activated this Skill to dodge a lethal attack, it has evolved to increase the user¡¯s Agility by 50% when Bullet Time is activated while avoiding something that would kill them, should it strike And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, gaining an additonal ten charges, for a total of twenty.
Hellfire Flash (epic, Level max) ¡­ You may also unleash Hellfire Flash as a deadly lance of compressed flame, capable of staying intact across a distance of up to 100 meters. After countless times when the user has used this Skill to cripple Raid Bosses, it has evolved to partially ignore armor, even incinerating the user¡¯s foes on the inside. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its strength, becoming able to be chaneled through weapons to gain new forms and abilities based on the weapon used.
It had been incredibly painful to get here, but looking at what he had gained, Leon decided it had been worth it. Yet he doubted even that would be enough to let him finish this anytime soon. *** 1 year later Try one-hundred-and- ¡­ eight, he believed. No, nine. Either way, he¡¯d been at this for a long time. And yet, Leon did not hesitate for even a single second before stepping out onto the field of battle. He was the last one to keep attempting this, to keep going everyone else had given up. But he would continue, keep going until either the Demon killed him, or old age did. Dr. Thoma had continued to be careful about how much gear he handed Leon, but even so, the monsters he¡¯d killed had been given to some excellent craftsmen and he was now clad an elegant suit of dark red leather, wielding a gorgeous billbook make from white bone and black steel gained from a Hunting Ground (though Leon had only retrieved the ore, Thoma had been the one to actualy beat the summoned area). The summoning circle blazed on the floor and activated at Leon¡¯s shouted ¡°ready,¡± and the 109th Demon Lord manifested in the concrete box with the two humans. Leon launched himself forward, dodged the first attack, a kick this time, and went at the leg still planted on the floor, carving through it with a vicious [Sanctifying Sweep], the blade cleaving through the Achilles tendon while shining with holy light, parting the flesh with barely any resistance while sinking energy that annihilated the flesh of demons into the leg, and that was before [Anathema] scoured the beast¡¯s body. The monster started teetering while both hands took on a dark glow as it prepared itself to unleash a hellish blaze. Which it promptly did even as it fell, but Leon was already running away as quickly as his legs would carry him, which was significant. Yet it still felt like he was coming in slightly too fast, he¡¯d get scorched. He¡¯d made the mistake of believing he¡¯d get away a few too many times to repeat it now, so he burned the first charge of [Hellfire Flash] in this battle, carrying him out of the zone of danger. Then, when he¡¯d reached what he knew to be a safe distance, he wheeled around and ran straight back the instant the flames started to dissapate. A [Meteor Throw] burried his golden-glowing billhook in the already damaged leg¡¯s knee, interrupting the demon¡¯s attempt to rise and [Summon Weapon] would have it back in his hands by the time he was close enough to use it. A good start. Simple, clean, effective. Now he just had to keep that up for half an hour or so. He almost failed when an unexpected blast of hellfire was flung at his face the second he grabbed his weapon, but thankfully, he¡¯d prepared for that. [Prepare Response] let him ¡°programm¡± three responses for how he¡¯d react to specific stimuli, and the [Skill] functioned at far greater speeds than even his [Instant Reaction]. [Bullet Time] triggered before he could manually activate it and after a couple of seconds of thinking, he triggered [Holy Lancer]. He¡¯d found that he shouldn¡¯t save it until the very end, it worked better if he used it to get out of a jam and then got the most out of its duration, so he used it here, then hurled himself skywards using [Angelic Launch] while letting the projected armor¡¯s wings carry him onto the monster¡¯s face. Small, finger-length needles of holy energy began to manifest above his skin and hurl themselves at the enemy without requiring any input on his part, while he readied his next move. A [Hellfire Flash] boosted him forward, past grasping arms and right at the demon¡¯s face and then, Leon triggered [Bullet Time], feeling the familiar sensation of the world slowing to a crawl while his limbs seemed to be trying to move through sirup. Incredible, yet also surprisingly frustrating. Another [Meteor Throw] flung his billhook at the boss¡¯ other knee before a holy lance manifested in each hand. Trying to use two weapons simultaneously, let alone trying to drive them both home into separate targets was far from easy, but with his mind running at hypersonic speeds, he could easily line up each spear separately. Sure, [Bullet Time] ran out halfway through, but he managed to trigger it a second time before regular temporal progression continued, leaving Leon to belly-flop against the monster¡¯s nose, then dangle from a pair of lances, one stuck in each eye. Then, two [Hellfire Flashes] slammed the head back, lances still planted in empty eye sockets, while Leon went flying the other way ¡­ but not past the monster¡¯s attack. A giant palm clipped him and sent him into a tailspin, until he went sprawling across the floor with an aching side and a leg that seemed determined to sear itself into his memory as a prime example as to why landing properly was important. Nothing broken, at least nothing in his limbs, near as he could tell, but he was far from whole and the demon had already gotten back onto its feet and was radiating hellfire. Leon groaned, pushed himself to his feet and began to hobble away while his regeneration kicked in, sucking away even more of his already dwindling mana while the world exploded in black flame. And then, he waited, patiently searching for an opening with yet another pair of conjured lances, only the glare of the weapons planted in the demon¡¯s eye sockets visible. The very instant the fire faded, Leon launched himself forward once more, the first lance leaving his hand in the very same second, then he grabbed the second one and threw it after the first, both slamming home into the demon¡¯s chest, above the heart, [Meteor Throw] driving them so deep they¡¯d have been invisible without the light streaming off them. And he followed right behind then, of course, ramming the final holy lance into the more intact knee while retrieving his billhook, then spent the remaining duration of [Holy Lancer] tearing into his foe with reckless abandon while they burned teh monster from where they were planted. Yet the power went away as his time ran out, and it was right that second when the monster managed to backhand him into the far wall. And the only reason he was able to continue the fight after that was that the demon¡¯s blindness meant that Thoma did not intervene. Leon lay there, feeling the bones in his legs knit together as he glared at the towering demon in the distance. Initially, it had looked like something straight out of DOOM, a powerful musclebound brute, but the more damage he inflicted, the more it began to resemble some kind of body horror thing, a being that inflicted discomfort onto anyone who laid eyes on it as it as they imagined what it would be like to live life while that mutilated. Yet even as his mana dropped past the ten percent mark, his legs finished regenerating and he went straight back to attacking, a constant back and forth, though really, it was much more of a backbackback-and-FOURTH, since Leon landed a lot more hits that were infinitely weaker than what his foe could dish out, while his foe was like a drunken octagenarian trying to swat a fly. The demon usually missed, but not always. Yet eventually, the demon collapsed onto both knees and stayed there. Punches and fire continued to fly, but its mobility was already screwed to hell by that point. So Leon kept attacking, kept hacking and slashing and tearing until an arm fell off. Then he burrowed through its chest and carved apart its heart, his right arm being reduced by a glancing strike from a pillar of fire in the process. A [Meteor Throw] sent the billhook in one ear and saw it come out the other, trailing gore. And then, after several more minutes of concerted effort, the Demon¡¯s other arm went slack. Yet the damn thing still. Wasn¡¯t. Dead. Even as his lungs began to burn, his arms and legs feel like he¡¯d bathed them in the demon¡¯s flame from exertion alone, he continued to fight, to work his way towards victory, one cut at a time as the world around him began to turn black at the edges ¡­ Without the kill notification, Leon was sure he¡¯d have kept slashing away at the monster until he dropped dead from exhaustion.
Least Demon Lord (Lv. 45 Raid Boss) has been slain. 50,000 XP gained Legendary Achievement has been noted and will increase future Class quality
As it were, he still keeled over, unconcious. ***
Congratulations! You¡¯ve managed to reach the third Evolution Threshold. Based on your current achievements, Skill Levels and Aspects, you have unlocked several new Classes. If these options do not satisfy you, you may choose to leave this screen and continue to rack up more prerequisites, but you cannot increase your Level beyond 50 until you evolve your Class. Here are your possible Class Evolutions:
Reaper (legendary) The Reaper represents the pinnacle of death-dealing potential, a Class only given to those who have brought down the greatest of foes, beings that would normally require dozens, if not hundreds of people to bring down. And these are the very same attributes this Class will strengthen, massively enhancing your ability to take down enemies by targeting their weaknesses with clinical precision while also gaining a potentially massive boost in strength, should the foes you¡¯re facing be sufficiently more powerful than yourself. This Class exists in every Evolutionary Rank from the 3rd onwards, but must be earned separately for each one by slaying a Raid Boss that cannot be more than 20 Levels below you. Each new Reaper Class builds upon the previous, creating a lethal warrior practically defined by their ability to well punch above their weight class, earning rewards in the process that make them powerhouses even to those not subject to the Reaper¡¯s various anti-boss Skills. As you have unlocked this Class by specializing against a specific type of Raid Boss (demonic) and subsequently killing it, further iterations must be unlocked either against Raid Bosses of different type, or against demonic Raid Bosses that either match or exceed your Level. (Unlocks High Human racial option)
Hell¡¯s End (legendary) You have walked through hell, be it metaphorical or literal, and the only demons left in your wake have been corpses. You did not have to do this, you chose to. You made the choice to drag the monsters of hell from their home and grow strong beyond measure with the power harvested from their deaths. And you have no intention of ever stopping. You are. Hell¡¯s. End. ¡°End¡± type Classes are highly unusual and exceedingly rare Evolutions of bane-types, doubling the XP limit for the relevant monsters (demons), halving the cost of slotting their Aspects or buying Aspect slots as long as you simultaneously slot a relevant Aspect, slotting a relevant Aspect when you are already in possession of all its Skills, you will gain 30 points in the Stat the Aspect naturally enhances and finally, none of your natural advantages against your chosen target will count against your Skill growth. Of course, they also make you very, very good at killing your chosen targets. This Class represents the absolute pinnacle of what your previous Class path can achieve and as such, choosing Hell¡¯s End will reset your achievements while permanently locking out anti-demon options. Whatever your fourth Evolution choice may be, you will forge it purely from your actions and choices from here on out. (Unlocks High Human racial option)
Now, only two choices. But who cared? Leon certainly didn¡¯t, since one of them was the one he¡¯d been working towards for so long. Though the other ¡­ [Hell¡¯s End] certainly counted as a cheat-rank [Class]. A ridiculous potential for wringing Stat points out of Aspects, immense [Skill] growth from slaughtering demons like chickens while the [System] ignored the fact that he was ludicrously overpowered against them and generally, just reading the description made him fell like at absolute badass. Even so, Leon had made a promise to explore the [Class] gained by soloing a [Raid Boss], which was clearly the other one. Not to mention that, while [Reaper¡¯s] description might not have listed too many concrete benefits, he had a feeling that it was immensely strong in general and devastatingly powerful against anyone and anything that surpassed him in strength. So he made his decision.
Reaper
Central Skills
Disciple of David Limit Breaker
Skills
Repear¡¯s Cloak Sense Life Force
Psychopomp¡¯s Steed Lingering Cut
Otherworld Pocket Journey Beyond
Well, now he just had to earn enough Levels to buy everything, didn¡¯t he? Though he did notice that the way the [Class] was set up, he¡¯d be able to buy every single [Skill] offered by the time he hit Level 100, but not have a single point left over when he did so. Weird. But also interesting. ***
Limit Breaker (legendary) The human body is a miraculous biological machine, yet it has limits. The System upgrades the human body, but even at the maximum Level, there continue to be limits. There are certain foes that cannot be overcome even by the strongest of humans, yet you have slain just such a foe. That is why you have been awarded the Reaper Class and the ability to break said Limits. Anytime you face a superior enemy, or a group of enemies that collectively represent a significant threat, your stats will be increased. Depending on the degree of the power disparity, this boost can be anything from .001 percent to 50 percent. In addition, Limit Breaker uplifts the user¡¯s hyperspecific Privacy Skill, turning it into a generic, legendary-rarity version that grows slightly stronger against higher Level individuals.
Ergo, his next fight against a [Raid Boss] would be a hell of a lot closer, and he¡¯d be harder to scan to boot. He hadn¡¯t even known it was possible to upgrade [Privacy] like that. Very nice, though.
Disciple of David (legendary) The bigger they are, the harder they fall ¡­ but you actually have to kill them to make that happen. That¡¯s something this Skill makes infinitely easier. As the Disciple of David, you can recognize all weak points at a glance, determine the result of striking said weak points and the best way to go about targetting them, both in terms of weapons and Skills but also in timing. In addition, you gain an innate understanding of your opponents¡¯ elemental and magical weaknesses, including knowledge as to how to easily obtain a way of exploiting these weaknesses. In addition, Disciple of David uplifts the user¡¯s hyperspecific Inspect Skill, turning it into a generic, legendary-rarity version with an improved effect against higher Level targets.
Oh, this would make future fights so much easier. And the upgrade to his [Inspect] was more than welcome. As for the other [Skills], [Reaper¡¯s Cloak] was a great stealth ability, [Sense Life Force] let him identify an enemy¡¯s regenerative potential, [Psychopomp¡¯s Steed] was for traveling and flight, [Lingering Cut] made his wounds hard to heal, [Otherworld Pocket] was for storing stuff, and [Journey Beyond] was a damn long range teleportation ability. He might not have had any options as for what he picked, but what he did have available covered basically everything. Leon was still reading and marveling at his [Skills] when Dr. Thoma returned. He hadn¡¯t even noticed he¡¯d been gone at first, but now that he was suddenly standing there with a long, cloth-wrapped, bundle. ¡°So, now that you beat the record, I think I can start helping more without messing up your advancement,¡± Thoma said as he held it for Leon to take. ¡°I think you¡¯ll like it.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± Leon nodded and picked it up, carefully working one hand under the cloth so that he could pull off said cloth with the other. When he whipped it off, however, his jaw hit the floor. What had been revealed wasn¡¯t just a new weapon, a masterwork polearm, but it was the polearm, a dark billhook made from indescribeable materials likely work as much as a small town purely based on what it was made from, let alone all the work that had gone into making it. And in its core, in the head of the weapon, sat a dark gemstone that seemed to pulse with power.
Star¡¯s Demise (soulbound modified billhook) Stars. The biggest objects in the heavens, mighty furnaces of nuclear fury as they transform the primordial elements left behind by the Big Bang into ever more complex forms while illuminating the universe. Yet out there in the black, there exists something that eats stars. The black hole. And this weapon wields the aspects of such a phenomenon. A lethal edge, point and hook, surrounding a core of pure gravity magic, capable of reshaping local gravimetric conditions as well as scaling the weapon¡¯s mass up or down as its wielder desires. In addition, Star¡¯s Demise is soulbound, can be summoned into its wielder¡¯s hands every five seconds and be reshaped as they desire, growing certain parts of the weapon or shrinking others, becoming things such as an axe, a Bec de Corbin with an oversized spike or a standard spear as needed.
¡°It¡¯s perfect ¡­¡± Leon breathed out as his hands trailed across it, marvelling at the dark metal, jet-black wood, and even darker gemstone that seemed like a hole in reality itself. Oh, he¡¯d have a lot of fun with this. *** 2100 Leon sat down in his new office chair with a happy sigh. As a Level 200 quadruple legendary [Class] holder, every Evolution from the second onwards, he¡¯d easily slid into the venerable role of S-Ranker. But unlike what most people expected a person in his position to do, he¡¯d become an administrator. Of course, he¡¯d lacked all the relevant [Skills] for something like that, but some could be taught, and for the others, he could lean on assistants and secretaries. And now, he was in a perfect position to do for others what Isaac had done for him. A voice broke his daydreaming. ¡°Dean Schmidt, you¡¯re expected in the Audimax in five minutes.¡± Yep, shouldn¡¯t have sceduled this for an hour after he started moving his crap into his new office. Past Leon had clearly been a dunce, but present Leon wouldn¡¯t let that turn him into a cruel tease. Because he¡¯d made some promises to a bunch of young people that would change their lives. He walked through the corridors of the Akashik Academy, which looked almost exactly like they had fifty years ago, the only change being the new moto. After all, the academy hadn¡¯t had one before, and there was only a single phrase he deemed suitable. A quote, from the founder of lauded institution. ¡°¡®Knowledge is a weapon¡¯ doesn¡¯t refer to bashing someone¡¯s skull in with an encyclopedia.¡± Soon, he reached the main auditorium and stepped up to the lectern. ¡°Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. One of Akashik Academy¡¯s foundational goals is the exploration of exotic and hard to get paths of growth. And you¡¯re all here because you want to walk those paths. So, who¡¯s up for setting some new world records?¡± Timeline Apocalypse Redux - Sequel May 2nd, 2022: System Launch October 3rd, 2022: First Demon Lord is summoned Summer, 2023: First Contact with the Cult 2026: Cult¡¯s Destruction January 15th, 2030: Tier 10 is properly breachedUnauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Summer, 2031: The Leviathan is summoned and beaten 2035: Akashik Academy is opened 2041: Ymir Boss fight 2045: Mars is fully colonized 2052-53: Der Schnitter Sidestory takes place 2072: Isaac and Elena Leave to Explore space 2073: ??? Sidestory (I¡¯ll be filling out/replacing the cryptic names as I write and subsequently post them) 2077: ??? Sidestory 2095: First Contact Sidestory (Isaac) 2100: An Essay on why Dreadnoughts are a terrible Idea (Sidestory) 2122: ??? Sidestory (Amy) 2135: ??? Sidestory (Alexander Braun) 2137: Death Knell of Worlds is found and slain (sequel prolog/preview) Story 2: United Earth Navy 2073, Earth Orbit, Colonial Construction Facilities There were days when Commodore Ciara Hunt was ashamed to be an officer of the United Earth Navy. Not because of an ultimately inconsequential scandal, those that happened in any big organization and anyone who claimed differently was simply good at cleaning up after themselves, but from secondhand embarrassment as she watched the new recruits struggle to make their way around the under-construction O¡¯Neill Cylinder. Once it was finished, it would be shipped off to a new colony, which made use of its rotational pseudogravity since those lacked the spare enchanters to maintain magical artificial gravity. But for right now, it served as the perfect environment for cadets at the Luna Naval Academy to experiment with maneuvering in air-less zero-g environments. Badly. Hunt caught a cadet¡¯s leg before he could inadvertently kick her in the face and hurled him across the cylinder even as she warped space to make it so he landed lightly on the war wall, feet first. She really shouldn¡¯t have been here at all, she was supposed to have been in command of the 11th expeditionary fleet to check out a potential but unlikely alien contact ¡­ except the ships for that hadn¡¯t been finished yet even though she¡¯d already gotten the bump to Commodore in expectation of that deployment. So the 10th fleet had gone. And as for why the ships were delayed, well, it might be guaranteed to become an advantage in the long term, but right now, it was just frustrating. A simple advancement in power conduction had caused the brass to require a redesign of all future ships, as well as an overhaul of all hulls currently under construction, causing mass chaos in the shipyards, and putting several officers slated to command those ships currently unavailable in awkward positions. So she¡¯d grabbed the academy assignment to avoid winding up with some crap, potentially even make-work, job while waiting on her command to be, well, commendable. But this, she¡¯d enjoy. Oversee the next graduating class of officers, then command the UENS Exeter with its mix of old hands and newly minted officers on the vessel¡¯s shakedown cruise. She kinda felt for the heavy cruiser, having been stuck in a similar limbo to her. It had been finished the day the discovery had been made, and up until a week ago, discussions had raged about whether to deploy the ship as-is, or retrofit it, though since it had been finished, it would have been a ridiculous amount of work to do the latter. So she could ¡°use¡± it. *** One week later Sadly, there were regulations about the conveyance of senior officers, otherwise, Hunt would have flown over to her temporary command under her own power, but thankfully, modern shuttles had plenty of ways to see the surrounding universe. And by warping space, she could sit stoically in her chair and still view the universe as though she were sitting there with her nose pressed against the viewport. The Exeter looked much like every other heavy cruiser in humanity¡¯s arsenal, six hundred meters long, a broad, rounded, wedge with a blunt bow, wrapped in glittering reflective armor that was, in turn, covered in gun turrets, weapon ports, sensor blisters, maneuvering thrusters, and a handful of radiators in case the magical heat dispersion worked into the armor itself failed. It was a utilitarian design, unlike cruise liners, diplomatic vessels or luxury yachts, but there was beauty in that. A stark, lethal, beauty. If she didn¡¯t know how new it was, she wouldn¡¯t have been able to tell it apart from a ship so outdated it had to be decommissioned. That was how starships went. In order for them to work, they had to be kept in tip-top shape, so it did not take much beyond that to make them look nice. Even pirate ships, crewed and commanded by some of the worst scum humanity had ever produced, were still presentable. The Exeter was also heavily armed with particle beams, lasers, railguns, and a handful of missile launchers spread around the hull. All very standard, all across the fleet. It was simple, it was boring, and it worked. Yes, there were a million different ways you could get cute with magic, [Skills] or both, and every possible combination of either with the currently existing technology, and even restricting oneself to just tech one could make so much more, so many different weapons ... but there was something to be said about building stuff that actually worked in all situations, and with all gunners. There were some interesting anecdotes that got thrown in the face of anyone who tried to declare their new weapon types as the non-plus-ultra in armament. So while, even being extremely strict with what qualified as a ¡°type,¡± there were hundreds of types of weapons that could be used, you could count what was taken out into the field on one hand. They could always be used, it kept the number of replacement parts reasonable, and prevented unnecessary confusion. Of course, there were also drawbacks to this process, mainly, that these weapons could be countered. Namely, magnetic shields to disperse particle beams and reflective, magically cooled, armor to deflect lasers. That was the flip side of the argument. Unless one ship was significantly larger than what the other was meant to deal with, modern vessels started fights virtually immune to each other¡¯s guns and would slowly wear each other down unless a spell or [Skill] could turn the tide. Still, Hunt had spent the last two decades of her life playing devil¡¯s advocate in pitch meetings for more exotic stuff, and rarely had the designers had a response to her pointed questions beyond ¡°we don¡¯t think that¡¯ll be an issue.¡± A proper upgrade would be nice, one of these days. But until then, well, she¡¯d learned to be utterly lethal with the weapons she currently had. Besides, where the energy weapons fell short, you had railguns and the ship¡¯s crew. The former because there was no hard counter to kinetic weaponry other than not being where the projectile went, and the latter because there were so many different [Skills], spells and other human-created effects that no one could effectively prepare counters for even a fraction of them. Standardization, dependability, and power from technology, flexibility, growth, and fine control from magic. That was how modern combat worked. Hunt left her office and stepped onto the bridge, sitting down in the captain¡¯s chair on what would likely be her very last voyage as the commander of a single ship. Spatial magic was already sparking off her as she prepared to take the ship to FTL. For as creative as humanity had gotten with almost every other facet of technology, they only had one useable interstellar faster-than-light travel, even counting even remotely viable prototypes, for there were none. It was the three Aspect combination that allowed for the acquisition of the [Alcubierre Bubble] [Skill], or nothing. Granted, their FTL coms weren¡¯t much better, being an inherent point-to-point system based on a principle that essentially amounted to magical quantum entanglement, a process that was so complex that each ship only had a single communicator linked to the headquarters at Mercury, but there were other ideas. Nothing that was currently useable, but at least they were getting there. ¡°Take us out, fifty percent engine power,¡± Hunt ordered, addressing the helmsman. It would still be a bit before they reached the point where vessels could make the jump to superluminal speeds. Once they were out in the galaxy, she¡¯d let the other wielders of [Alcubierre Bubble] get some hours in, and learn to use the [Skill] to its greatest effect, but in the Sol system, care and control were needed, not to mention that she could jump out from significantly closer to the Sun than any of her subordinates. All ships had to have at least one percent of their crew, or ten people, whichever was more, capable of taking the ship into FTL by regulation, though very large ships, including battleships and even the currently-hypothetical planetary assault carriers, were allowed to go on with less. The issue was that if the ship did take damage, only one person on the crew could transport it between star systems, and that person was killed, it would doom everyone onboard to a slow and agonizing death. Admittedly, calling for a ¡°tow¡± via the FTL comms was possible, but considering that each vessel only had a single communicator useable at interstellar distances and that might easily be destroyed at the same time as the living FTL drive was killed ¡­ it was an important precaution to take. And while a multitude of commercial vessels had gotten away with only having one or two people capable of using [Alcubierre Bubble], the reason that regulation had been put in place was because of when it hadn¡¯t. And things had gone wrong several times after that, proving to anyone who bothered to look why things were the way they were. Soon, the Exeter passed the invisible line where Hunt was comfortable with initiating FTL and that was what she did, finally pumping the mana she had been collecting into her chair and through the enchantment that shot through the entire vessel, twisting reality around the ship, the effect spreading out and slowly wrapping the entirety of the vessel in a field of impossible energy. The universe around the ship vanished in a blur of multicolored light, shifting into a grand tapestry of warped images and space bending in ways it was never supposed to. And they were off, to explore a few nearby systems, do some training exercises, make sure everything worked in the field the way it was supposed to and then actually complete their mission. *** Two weeks later Their mission wound up being as simple as it was common: pirate hunting. In theory, piracy should have been utterly superfluous in the modern day. All it took was a little elbow grease, a willingness to kill something, and a list of easy monsters to beat and you could easily get all the resources you wanted in a reasonable amount of time. Sure, you¡¯d never reach the heights of Isaac Thoma or Arthur Wells unless you took risks aplenty and had some luck to boot, but you¡¯d be able to buy just about everything you could possibly want well before that point. Yet people still cheated, still stole, still murdered. Because it was easier. And because there was one thing money couldn¡¯t buy: people. Slaves, specifically. Admittedly, money could buy them, but someone still had to handle the capturing and that was where the pirates came in. Thankfully, the theoretical nightmare scenario of System-enforced slave ownership had never materialized, but there were still plenty of ways around that, and Hunt had sadly seen most of them in action during previous anti-pirate operations. Repeated checking of someone¡¯s status sheet, truth-telling abilities, the limited mind control the System did allow, on top of all sorts of manipulation tactics and some enchanted jewelry to shock or otherwise disable a slave when they ¡°acted up¡± ¡­ It was bad. Always. A lot of the time, the pirates didn¡¯t even try to justify what they did, but there were plenty who made the attempt anyway, occasionally even claiming to be on some kind of divine mission or having godly ¡°permission.¡± You see, the System had caused quite a lot of religious discussion and debate. Various established religions had caused shitstorms by claiming that their deities had created it, pointing at certain references to their religion in one [Class] or other but that was only the start of it. The smallest facet of a titanic issue. No, the largest issue was the various people who decided that the System was a divine revelation meant to show humanity the ¡°right way,¡± and depending on what shape that ¡°right way¡± took, things could be fairly okay, bad, or really bad. j It had started with the Children of the System, born days after the initialization and destroyed only a few months later after they¡¯d tried to assassinate various researchers on the grounds that uncovering the secrets of the System was ¡°heresy.¡± But things had only escalated from there. Some of the religions were based on ¡°good¡± ideas like perpetual self-improvement and the like. However, there were also a lot that were highly problematic. This started out as what was functionally worshipping Social Darwinism, but eventually escalated into worshipping any kind of improvement. Mainly the kind that came at the cost of people who failed to grasp power for themselves. Pirates, mercenaries, and other criminals might have always existed, justifying their actions with ideas such as ¡°well, it was easy,¡± or ¡°if it¡¯s so wrong, then stop me,¡± but now, they had an actual religion with actual ¡°signs¡± to follow. Those who followed various new System-inspired religions weren¡¯t necessarily worse or more cruel than those who didn¡¯t, but they certainly hesitated less before committing horrific acts of brutality. And pirates did exactly that. ¡°This is our mission,¡± Hunt announced, illusions flickering to life above the conference room table, showing seven passenger ships, two merchant vessels, and three cruisers. ¡°A pirate band has created a base somewhere between Earth, and the three furthest coreward colonized systems of Triumph, Ithica, and Terra Nova the Twenty-seventh.¡± That last name was about as ridiculous as system names got, but the only ones who laughed were the recent graduates in the room. Everyone else was used to stuff like that. Star systems got an alpha-numeric designation until they were colonized, and then, the colonizer could choose the name with very few restrictions. It couldn¡¯t be outright unprintable, and had to be unique, but beyond that? It could get very, very ridiculous. ¡°To date, they¡¯ve taken nine ships, using at least three four-hundred-meter cruisers, or potentially light cruisers, unfortunately, the scanner data provided is rather lacking.¡± That was civilian scanners for you. They kept you from running into asteroids, and would usually tell you if you were about to fall into a star, but beyond that, you¡¯d probably be better off just crushing your nose against a viewport. As for the ships, well, despite how the term had been used in science fiction before space travel had become reality, ¡°light¡± cruisers weren¡¯t smaller cruisers, they just had less armor. Just like how it had worked on Earth¡¯s ocean. Of course, depending on the class, a cruiser could be anything from 150 to 500 meters in length, covering a whole lot of purposes, but all cruisers were designed for endurance, long-range travel, and having at least some degree of heavy firepower. As a heavy cruiser, Exeter was larger than any medium cruiser, had much heavier armor and weapons, though not quite to the point where fighting the known hostile vessels was going to be an easy affair. Where destroyers were used for short-range patrols and reconnaissance missions, and regular cruisers for anything that required a longer range, heavy cruisers were never dispatched unless combat was expected. Often accompanying true capital ships, but sometimes, like now, there were no battleships available, or even battlecruisers. ¡°I don¡¯t have to tell you that piracy is a perpetual problem on the frontier, and it takes far too long for a sufficiently strong force to be dispatched. The frontier bases might have their cruisers and destroyers, however, pirate pursuit needs to be done with a powerful force lest our ships are captured and used by the pirates.¡± Pirate ships were, normally at least, far weaker than navy vessels. It might have been literally impossible to keep the plans for working warships completely out of the public hands. With all the allowances made for civilian self-defense, some weapon blueprints had to be at least semi-public and it didn¡¯t take too much effort nowadays to cobble together a combat-capable vessel from those and general warship design principles. Then, all you needed was someone to build it, and it did not take much more to make a ship that could fight than one that could not. Navy vessels, in the meantime, were built using cutting-edge tech, by expert craftsmen who imbued all sorts of additional effects. All of them would start out at the lower levels, building non-critical components while gaining experience and XP, then eventually moving on to more complex and important parts until they eventually either reached the point where they could build a reactor with their bare hands in an afternoon, or left for the civilian sector. ¡°We will be dropping by Zheng He base on the way and picking up some additional vessels.¡± Hunt finally concluded. That had been a recent addition to her orders, when the third distinct cruiser had finally been identified. *** One month later It had taken them a long time, a lot of searching, a lot of scanning, but eventually, they¡¯d jumped into the correct system and at that point, it had been quite easy to spot their target. All their little fleet had had to do was get deep enough into this particular star system to see the star-facing side of one of its gas giants, where the pirate was located. ¡°Uh-oh ¡­¡± Hunt, very deliberately, did not take note of who¡¯d said that. She couldn¡¯t blame them, unfortunately.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Because what they were facing was a foundry. With how many parts had to be practically handmade, and with how many people had to be involved, making a warship was a complex, involved, lengthy, process. So even if the seemingly-impossible scenario of having enough high-Level crewmembers to crew more ships than the navy had were to come true, it would take a while to build those ships. However, it was also possible to go in the other direction. To automate the entire process of making a warship to the greatest degree possible, and then automating those warships to the point where a good ninety-nine percent of their strength came from their technology, rather than their crew or creators. Granted, the ships still needed someone with proper [Skills] to take them to another star system, or even another point in the same star system in any reasonable amount of time, and if the ship was bigger than a destroyer, it also needed to be enchanted, but other than that? You could build and build and build warships to create a massive force of mediocre vessels ¡­ that would eventually break down as automated maintenance systems slowly failed over the years. But for a while, you could create a force of incredible, nay, ridiculous power from asteroids alone, Which was why they were currently seeing not just three cruisers and a smattering of destroyers that had been expected, but a whopping twenty cruisers, four heavy cruisers that were still in the drydocks but could probably fight at least somewhat, and nearly fifty destroyers. Each of Hunt¡¯s thirteen ships, the Exeter and the reinforcements they¡¯d picked up, four cruisers and eight destroyers, was more than twice as strong as what they were facing, pound for pound. But as the old quote went, quantity had a quality of its own. Yeah ¡­ the UEF should have sent a battleship. But the United Earth Fleet only had sixty of those, and that was counting the twenty-one currently still being built, and they were perpetually stuck guarding important systems, only dispatched in cases of extreme emergencies. Or at least a battlecruiser, but there were even fewer of those and they were all locked into long-range exploration missions despite the fact that they were designed to obliterate smaller ships ¡­ and run away from anything bigger. The correct choice would have been to retreat, inform fleet command, stop all traffic through the area until a force of appropriate size could be dispatched to clean this all up. But while Hunt doubted the pirates had enough Alcubierre Aspects to move all those ships between systems, there were certain [Skills] that could allow for shorter hops and those were a lot more common, sadly. ¡°All hands, battle stations,¡± she ordered, then began using the fleet¡¯s command party to shoot off the more complicated formation orders. If nothing appeared in the next few minutes, such as if the pirates lacked any detection abilities not limited to the speed of light, they¡¯d be able to retreat back out of the local star¡¯s gravity, jump to FTL from there and she¡¯d be happy having been wrong, but she doubted they¡¯d be that lucky. Warp-type [Skills], as they were known, were simply too common. Oh, sure, there were a million variations, some always put you behind an enemy vessel, others had a range based on the effective range of either your or the enemy¡¯s weapons, then there were those who effectively allowed its wielder to ¡°skip ahead,¡± teleporting to a point one could have reached in a given span of time ¡­ but they all had the same fundamental property of allowing for short-range teleportation. ¡°Short¡± for space, that was. Sure, any Warp-type [Skill] started out with a range greater than the diameter of many planets, that was nothing on the scale of a star system. Heck, you could fit every other planet in the solar system just between the Earth and its moon. And not every captain in the fleet could escape in an instant. In fact, only she could, and that would be dooming everyone else. This would be ugly, and it would almost certainly come down to tactics and the crews¡¯ [Skills]. ¡°Broadcast a demand to surrender,¡± Hunt belatedly ordered. It almost certainly wouldn¡¯t work, considering the penalty for the crimes the pirates had doubtlessly committed and the power difference, but it was worth the attempt. Give the pirates a couple of seconds to listen to the demand, and if they so much as pointed a laser pointer at Hunt¡¯s fleet, that was that. The first pirate ship to arrive was a cruiser, on a trajectory past Hunt¡¯s formation, but not in any way that denoted a plan. It¡¯d be close enough to bear the full brunt of their energy weapons but not so close to effectively use its kinetics, which would have at least made some degree of sense. Close in firing run, punch holes in everyone with railguns, and pray your defenses were good enough to handle the energy weapons. It was risky, and pointless considering the pirates¡¯ numbers advantage, but it would at least have been an explanation for why someone would do that. Other than incompetence, that was. Between the clearly aggressive trajectory, and the fact that all weapons were fully powered, no one would even complain they fired first. Energy poured out from their fusion reactors, metal prisons containing the full fury of a star sending power crackling through their ships¡¯ grids and into the countless weapons they were bristling with, and was finally hurled into space with lethal intent. Out into the void. But the beams of particles accelerated to near light speed and coherent photons traveling at that speed only spent a tiny fraction of a second in motion before hammering into their target, a pirate cruiser severely lacking in defenses. Magnetic fields tore apart particle beams, dispersion them into a scattered shotgun blast of ions that splattered fairly uselessly against the armor, while the first salvo of lasers bounced large harmlessly off the mirrored hull. The first one. And while the Exeter¡¯s heaviest beams were still recharging, all ships had weaker weapons with a much shorter cycling time. And when the ragged second salvo arrived, it melted straight through the cruiser¡¯s hull. Hunt grinned viciously as she saw the entire front side of the cruiser vanish in a burst of light and metallic slag. So ¡­ the pirates hadn¡¯t properly enchanted their hulls. Sure, mirrors were great against lasers ¡­ at first. But they heated up quickly and without the normally ubiquitous magical cooling systems, held up quite badly against sustained fire. ¡°Cease fire,¡± she ordered. ¡°If they move, put a railgun round through their reactor.¡± As per usual, complex maneuvers were ordered through her [Fleet Command] [Skill], however, and Hunt¡¯s little fleet swung around, maneuvering to ensure that, whether the enemy emerged from their warps with their old speed or at an orbiting velocity suitable for the celestial body they emerged above, they¡¯d only be in range of each other briefly. ¡°Prioritize laser fire against any new targets, use particle beams on any vessel that has lost its shielding. Target any ship with reduced maneuverability using railguns,¡± Hunt continued. With the lacking armor, taking down the generators for the magnetic fields that dispersed particle beams would be a piece of cake, making the usual tactic of ¡°use energy weapons against hull until something fails¡± rather unnecessary. And as for the railguns, they technically had infinite range, their projectiles simply kept going until they hit something, but at the same time, their effective range, outside of which an intact ship could easily dodge, was fairly short. Hence the focus on damaged vessels. Three more cruisers warped in at a greater distance, safe from getting obliterated like their fellow had, and a smattering of destroyers appeared as well, manifesting behind an incandescent field of magic meant to refract and reflect energy weapons. [Warp Blast]. The cooldown [Skill] was all but invisible as it flashed from the bow of the Exeter, only perceptible by those eagle eyes who noticed how the stars on its other side twinkled slightly, but no one did. No, instead, it flashed straight through whatever shield the pirates had erected and twisted space to yank all enemy ships towards it as it detonated, then sent them flying back in random directions, spinning, twisting rolling out of control. Not forever, but for long enough that they went careening out from under the shield and ripped apart concentrated fire. Lasers to rip through the insufficient armor and fry the defensive field generators, particle beams to finish the job. Hunt groaned internally. They were already starting to burn through their [Skills] and they¡¯d barely even made a dent in the enemy numbers. And that was when the enemy¡¯s entire mobile force warped as one, aiming to manifest before her flotilla. If she let it happen, that was. But she wouldn¡¯t. [Pernicious Pandemonium]. The [Skill] had its limits, she could not mess with their teleportation to the point where they leaped into a gas giant or the local star, nor could she scatter them all over the place, but what she could do was pull most of their enemies closer. Much closer. Past them, even, a few kilometers to the rear of Hunt¡¯s formation. Modern warships were built to fire forwards and to the side, not backwards. There was something of a ¡°skirt¡± built to curve around the stern, shielding the engines from attacks from most angles and creating a place for rear-facing armament to sit, but in the end, the only point a warship could bring all its guns to bear on was in front of it, and the area hardest to target was behind it. Then there was the fact that warships generally needed a brief amount of time to analyze their surroundings after a warp, separate friend from foe, and generate firing solutions. By the time they passed out of each other¡¯s range, the enemy would barely have fired a shot while the navy ships had had at least some forewarning, had guns already rotated into position, and since all allies present had known locations, any new contacts were automatically hostile and could be fired upon. But as the saying that had stood the test of time went, the enemy got a vote too. And they were in such close quarters that dodging railgun rounds was functionally impossible. The destroyer Thunderous suddenly went spinning as a railgun round slammed into its stern and sent it tumbling, engine down and bleeding atmosphere. The Mogador was outright shattered as it was struck by two kinetics near-simultaneously. And the Yukikaze was nearly ripped in half by a perfect shot that had gone right up its engine and into the reactor, only the quick reactions of one of her engineers in shutting down her fusion core, preventing her from turning into a short-lived star, though they¡¯d have to retrieve the crew sooner rather than later. And the damage didn¡¯t remain limited to the destroyers. A series of explosions wracked the Kirov, her rearmost cruiser, costing her enough engine power to make her fall back and completely taking down her rear-facing deflector fields. That cruiser was doomed. And her captain realized it, initiating his own warp to leave the local area in the hope that the pirates wouldn¡¯t hunt him and his crew down before they¡¯d beaten the rest of the navy¡¯s flotilla. Even so, their enemies hadn¡¯t got off scot-free either. Half a dozen destroyers had been battered into wrecks by energy weapons, while all of Hunt¡¯s railguns had concentrated their fire on the cruisers. None that dealt fatal damage, actually breaking the ship, but railguns simply could not be blocked by anything short of magic and left massive craters in the enemy armor, making its reflective properties even more terrible than they already were and shattering any magnetic field projectors that might have been beneath the point of impact. In the next exchange of fire, those would be annihilated. However, Hunt hadn¡¯t stopped there, because she¡¯d left some ships where they¡¯d originally intended to appear ¡­ all alone. At the mercy of every gun that could not fire at the fleet behind them. Four cruisers, quite literally, melted under the concentrated fire of the naval flotilla. Behind them, the pirate fleet dissolved into chaos as they attempted to turn around, and, well, things got chaotic. Then again, if they¡¯d been disciplined, they likely wouldn¡¯t have become pirates either. ¡°Fire missiles, empty the magazines,¡± Hunt ordered. Between the Exeter¡¯s twelve missile tubes, the remaining three cruisers¡¯ eight each, and the twenty found across all five destroyers, they could only fire fifty-six a salvo, every thirty seconds. That was nothing in the face of an equivalent flotilla, let alone the pirate fleet that still outnumbered them ¡­ but that was all assuming that the defenders properly coordinated defensive fire and were in a proper formation, precisely none of which applied to pirates in general and definitely didn¡¯t apply to these pirates. And by the time the pirates had managed to fully turn around, and bring their guns to bear ¡­ Hunt had her flotilla warp away, leaving them to face all the missiles they¡¯d already put into space. While the navy appeared right where Hunt had already spotted the heavy cruisers being readied for departure. Her [Stellar Sight], much like most FTL sensory [Skills], including the one wielded by the Exeter¡¯s operations officer, allowed her to see what the sensors would have shown, had they been able to display what was happening in real-time, rather than via whatever arrived with light-speed delays. The physicists might be constantly arguing about whether the effect should be qualified as precognition or scrying, but the actual classification actually didn¡¯t really matter. It worked, that was what was important. Now, half of Hunt¡¯s flotilla might be stuck there, the ships¡¯ captains out of warp [Skills], but the same had to go for many of the pirates. And while facing four heavy cruisers was a tall order for what she had left, these ships were hardly finished. Scratch that, most pirates were out of charges. Hunt saw several pirate ships at the sight of the previous battle rabbit, wildly zapping away to save themselves but massively weaken the defenses of those who were unable to escape. Three cruisers vanished under the hammer blows of the missiles¡¯ nuclear warheads, becoming visible again as twisted wrecks once the light had faded. And the destroyers, well, they were tiny, and unenchanted. A direct hit atomized them, and even a series of near misses could severely damage them as the radiation fried their systems, leaving them sitting ducks for any follow-up missiles. In the end, twelve cruisers and nineteen destroyers were left, scattered halfway across the star system. More than enough to win against what Hunt had left in a straight-up brawl, but the enemy advantage was currently melting away like ice on a hot day. Then, the cruiser Ajax lurched out of formation as an incredibly heavy beam smashed into her bow, followed by a couple more as the other two pirate heavy cruisers closed in. Spinal weaponry, shit. Hunt bit back a curse. A gun built into a vessel¡¯s spine was, by default, the biggest, heaviest, most powerful gun that could fit on a given warship, but that didn¡¯t necessarily make it a good idea to install one, and that went doubly so for any vessel bigger than a destroyer, since you had to turn your entire ship to aim and doing so with bigger vessels was hard, and doing so left you unable to accelerate in any direction save straight at the enemy. But if you managed to pull it off ¡­ spinally mounted guns could hit hard. And as though things weren¡¯t bad enough, two pinpricks of light were shooting towards them from the furthest-out heavy cruiser, on the far side of the foundry. Hyperians. Fourth Evolution warriors with space flight, FTL, and light manipulation powers, a build-type developed by the UEF and several System scholars to create humans that could go toe-to-toe with warships. Not well, not at the Levels she saw, but each of them was worth a destroyer in terms of raw firepower, easily, and the concentrated nature of their power meant that they could, rather easily, land on a ship and burn their way down into the reactor. And, on top of that, since their [Skill]set often contained a significant element of ¡°light,¡± they excelled at blocking or deflecting lasers. Yeah, time to break out the proverbial big guns and empty the equally proverbial clip. [Gravity Well] to the left of the three cruisers in front of them, yanking them off course and fucking with their aim, [Twist Reality] to ensure that any hostile teleport effects into the area would drop out their users far enough that the navy could react, oh, [Spatial Warp] to deflect a rather predictable attack by one of the Hyperians into the station, hand off command of the effort against the cruisers to Captain Renard of the Belfast, and finally, use the second charge of her warp [Skill]. [Not Here, There]. And suddenly, the Exeter was right in the path of the first Hyperian, the one who¡¯d unleashed the attack, less than five centimeters from the woman¡¯s nose. But considering that they were moving at nearly three kilometers a second, relatively, that distance did not remain for long ¡­ yeah, Hyperians might have little difficulty landing on ships, but they had to match velocities to do that. With this kind of head-on collision, it wasn¡¯t the question of whether the human participant would survive. It was which poor bastard drew the short straw and had to clean that up. The second Hyperian looked to be about to unleash his big attack, but Hunt warped again, using her third charge, and planting the Exeter side-on with the enemy cruiser, and with the Hyperian on the opposite side of the pirate. A broadside duel between similarly-sized cruisers, even if one clearly was a few sensors and point defense weapons short of being finished and severely lacking in the armor department, was not a short affair. Certainly not short enough that the Exeter could finish this before the Hyperian got a bead on it. Except it could. [Reality Fold]. And space twisted in a way that seemed capable of breaking the mind of anyone who saw it. The pirate heavy cruiser could only bring about half its guns to bear. The Exeter, on the other hand could target it with every single gun it had. Also, incoming fire was distributed across every part of the navy cruiser¡¯s hull, thoroughly spreading out the impacts and preventing anything more than cosmetic damage, while the navy vessel was able to concentrate its power and burn a path straight down into the reactor. And when that went, so did the vessel ¡­ just in time for the Hyperian to appear, flashing past the pirate with both hands wreathed in energy. [Not Here, There], penultimate charge. The Exeter appeared behind the Hyperian and unleashed its full firepower. As expected, the lasers were outright nothing, and the particle beams were dispersed almost as easily, but the railguns, well ¡­ Hyperians had to be fast, perceptive, and have a ton of magic, which failed to leave many Stat points for Fortitude, especially at the Fourth Evolution. The first round tore off an arm, the second slammed into the man¡¯s stomach and sent him flying amidst a cloud of blood, gore, and bone fragments, and the third tore blasted through that, leaving behind just a rapidly expanding cloud of offal. [Not Here, There], final charge. Even just during that incredibly short duel with the fourth heavy cruiser, Hunt¡¯s flotilla had lost more ships. The Ajax was breaking apart, the destroyer Glowworm was just gone, and the Fletcher was currently breaking up, but the pirates had lost a second heavy cruiser, a third was currently being battered into scrap, and the fourth, well, Hunt¡¯s ship had just appeared right behind it and sent over a dozen railgun darts up its tailpipe while its lasers had taken out any weapons that would have a good bead on the Exeter at the instant of arrival. Because if your warping [Skill] was precise enough, you could make those kinds of preparations ahead of time. The enemy cruiser lurched forward like a drunken pig, all power dying as the reactor went offline, either due to damage or as a precaution, it didn¡¯t matter. Because even while the Exeter turned to reinforce its allies, its point defense weapons burned off everything on the pirate ship that could be used as a weapon, systematically pounding it into scrap metal. And the last ¡°intact¡± enemy didn¡¯t last much longer either. Victory, for now. And as all this had been happening, Commodore Ciara Hunt, Level 150 [Conquerer of the Shattered Skies], had sat in her command chair and barely moved a muscle, not even turning her head or giving verbal commands. Now that this part of the engagement was over, she allowed herself to fall back into a more relaxed pose, and sighed internally. Yep, she desperately needed a fifth Evolution [Class] with more fleet-focused and large-scale [Skills]. Because a commodore couldn¡¯t normally rush off like that, and an admiral, if she ever reached that point, sure as fuck couldn¡¯t either. ¡°The remaining pirates are running, Commodore.¡± Hunt sighed. As expected. It meant they had won, but it also meant some poor bastard would be stuck having to chase them down. On the other hand, this left them free to conduct S&R and retrieve the crew of the Kirov. *** Three weeks later ¡°Well, that was ... something, Commodore Hunt,¡± Rear Admiral Sun commented. They were both in his office, aboard his flagship, the battlecruiser Yi Sun-shin. ¡°That¡¯s the polite way of phrasing that, admiral;¡± she replied. ¡°With all due respect, someone screwed the pooch, probably Navy intelligence. Setting up a foundry out here should have left a paper trail, and if there was even a hint of a possibility we¡¯d run into something like that out here, I should have been dispatched with either three times what I got, or a proper capital ship.¡± ¡°You know, some are going to say you should not have taken your entire command so close to the star you cannot use [Alcubierre Bubble] to get out,¡± Sun commented. ¡°Which would have flown in the face of established naval doctrine and sentenced whatever warships were sent in to certain death,¡± Hunt replied, flatly. ¡°And I¡¯ll tell the same to anyone who claims otherwise.¡± Sun grimaced. ¡°I agree, but you know these things shake out. You¡¯ll have to make that case, several times, most likely.¡± ¡°Can I count on your backing?¡± Hunt asked, certain that that was where this was leading. ¡°Of course, I¡¯ve also already made that opinion clear with our superiors,¡± Sun said. ¡°For all the good that will do. However, before anything like that can happen,you¡¯ll finish what you started.¡± ¡°Sir?¡± Hunt asked, not quite sure what he was getting at. She suspected, btu was nowhere near sure enough to voice her guess. ¡°Like you said, someone screwed the pooch, probably Rear Admiral Hayes at Zheng He, which is why he¡¯s being ordered back to Earth for ¡­ debrief. I¡¯m his replacement. Depending on this conversation, I can either take this place after the pirates have been hunted down, or right now, and you can take the reinforcements to bring the rest of the pirates to justice.¡± She didn¡¯t even have to think about it for very long. ¡°Thank you, admiral. I¡¯d like to finish this.¡± Four days later, a freshly reinforced and repaired fleet left Zheng He base, ready to go hunting. Sixteen cruisers, four heavy cruisers, thirty-two destroyers, and one battle cruiser. Even if the pirates had somehow gotten back to the foundry, repaired all the damage the navy had done before they left to prevent something like that, and had it running at full burn, they¡¯d still be so screwed it wasn¡¯t even funny. Actually, considering some of the shit the Marines had uncoverd on that station, it was very funny. And, one month later, the entire region was officially pronnounced pirate free once more. Story 3: Legacy 2047, Mars, Olympus Mons Crater No one was quite sure how having a famous older brother and being trained in swordsmanship added up to ¡°Valkyrie,¡± but that was how it had played out. [Valkyrie Squire] as an epic starter [Class], with [Skills] for flying, aerial combat, combat in general, gear maintenance, and finally, racial healing abilities that ranged from sealing wounds to putting injured allies into what was effectively stasis. [Warrior Valkyrie] had been her first Evolution, likewise epic, with a similar focus, though it granted access to the [Lesser Ressurection] spell that could heal lethal damage even after the target had passed the point where a doctor would have declared a time of death, though it couldn¡¯t bring them back too much longer beyond that. The precise limit of resurrection abilities was currently unknown, but couldn¡¯t be any longer than twenty minutes. And the lesser version also required a mostly intact body. Then, the second Evolution had been yet another epic version, [Valkyrie Steelwing]. Still powerful, granting the complete [Ressurection] ability plus the ability to turn wings to metal and even launch razor-sharp feathers like the Stymphalian Birds of Ancient Greece. Yet, it was still epic. Maintaining an epic [Class] streak was impressive compared to the average, it still put her in the ninety-eighth percentile or higher, depending on who she asked, but it was simply lacking. It wasn¡¯t enough, not by a long shot compared to who she had standing behind her. And yes, Isaac was a world-class, paradigm-shattering talent, she¡¯d been warned about not putting herself in danger to match him numerous times, but she had advantages even he hadn¡¯t had. If all she managed to do was stay above the average, she knew that in the future, be it in ten years or ten thousand, she¡¯d hate herself for having wasted this opportunity. Because what on Earth was she doing with her life? Simply existing? Having her little house in the near-Germany-sized portion of Mars Isaac had claimed, redecorating the building and its grounds whenever she felt like it, or something had broken in training ¡­ it was a step in the right direction, yet somehow, also felt wrong. ¡°Everything that the light touches is yours¡± applied, after a certain fashion. Most of the crater wall had vanished below the horizon from her point of view, but there was not a single spot on the ground inside Olympus Mons from where one could see anything not also a part of Isaac¡¯s estate. There was more space up here than any single human being could ever possibly take up even if they spread out to the absolute maximum possible. And it was lonely up here. The terraforming had finished a couple of years ago, but it was still taking a while for people to settle here, to build, to create communities within easy flying distance. No real distractions from the ¡°training in solitude¡± she¡¯d imagined, yet at the same time, she wasn¡¯t really getting anything close to that done. It was easy to imagine her [Skill] Levels shooting through the roof as she spent her days practicing, but hard to make those dreams a reality. Yet what on Earth had she been doing before moving here? Spent half her time training in one way or another, the other half chasing meaningless ¡°fun,¡± whether it was holidays or a string of short-lived relationships. It didn¡¯t matter to her anymore what she¡¯d actually achieved, not when she compared it to even a fraction of what her brother had achieved. No one, not even his family, or Elena, as far as she knew, had a full overview of his [Classes], but information had spread that he¡¯d been legendary from the 2nd Evolution onwards, and even his 1st Evolution had been at the very peak of what an epic [Class] could be. Nothing she¡¯d achieved so far measured up even in the slightest. But what was she supposed to do, throw in the towel, and return to Earth? Where boyfriends ran out on her the instant Isaac was even in the most distant vicinity, as they seemingly remembered who she was related to only then? The girlfriends who somehow never seemed to stick around, and in one particularly mortifying incident, had hit on Isaac when he¡¯d dropped by Tanja¡¯s apartment? That was hardly going to end well ¡­ can¡¯t stay, can¡¯t go back ¡­ how about walking forward? How about going to a place not as steeped in Isaac¡¯s shadow as the entirety of Earth, or his literally country-sized backyard? *** 2051 Where was the best place to escape a famous relative¡¯s shadow? A world they¡¯d never even set foot on, of course. Colonizing new worlds was hardly a simple process, with the ability to travel between solar systems being limited to only a single known Aspect, and a handful of specialized [Classes]. Or rather, having been. Because Isaac, it was always Isaac, had figured out a way to create new [Skills] from combinations of Aspect [Skills]. It hadn¡¯t just been the first time anyone had managed that, it had also created the perfect [Skill] for large-scale interstellar exploration, which allowed entire ships to be carried through the void between stars. Larger-scale interstellar exploration had recently found a planet that was habitable, albeit barely, and the call for volunteer colonists had gone out. Being both a healer and a fighter, all at a low enough Level to be able to grow into specialized [Classes] perfect for the current situation, had made Tanja a prime candidate even in the anonymized selection process. And the same went for Viktoria who had, unknown to her, been in much the same state. Though you wouldn¡¯t know it, not with how how confidently she presented herself, with how she flew through the air on an owl¡¯s wings, covered in runes and other magical symbols, wreathed in a palpable aura of power whenever they were visible. ¡°Ready?¡± Viktoria asked as she landed lightly next to Tanja. Tanja grinned. ¡°Ready.¡± And together, they walked aboard the shuttle that would take them to the Earth¡¯s first and grandest space station, and then, the starship that would take them through the void, the New Horizon. *** Six months later Terra Nova was perhaps the laziest possible name anyone had ever come up with in the entirety of human history. And inaccurate, in all honesty, considering what the world was like. Massive axial tilt resulting in seasonal variations that were rough, to say the least. On Earth, environmental conditions were usually such that life could evolve to survive everything their location could throw at them. Barring natural disasters, of course. Terra Nova ¡­ not so much. With it being primarily covered in dirt, not water, it did not retain warmth well and as the seasons changed, the ground cooled rapidly, leaving a good seventy-five percent of the planet to cycle between scorching expanses of sand, and frosty plains of ice and snow as the year progressed, with the fact that a Terra Nova year was almost twice as long as Earth¡¯s only somewhat mitigating the issue. What plants did manage to survive were either alien cacti-equivalents, or titanic trees that combined the best traits of bamboo and succulents, growing swiftly in the fertile periods and slowly filling out their internals afterwards, relying on a whole host of interesting chemicals to withstand the temperature extremes. Animals, meanwhile, tended to be nomadic, following whatever environment they were adapted to. Though there were these fox-like scavengers the size of a large cat or small dog which followed the bigger herbivores just ahead of the worst of winter and were cute as sin. As a result, getting shelter and agriculture set up as fast as possible was vital, and getting at least some basic protective enchantments up and running was also important. Tanja and Viktoria often worked together on that, one to put up the house, the other to enchant them. Though they were also often tasked with fixing up small scrapes and bruises when they occurred nearby. Not that they minded, it took more effort to light a candle than it was to heal an injury that small and people were grateful. They were both still at Level 50, it would take a bit longer before the good colonist pioneer, or frontier-themed [Classes] started becoming available, but at that point in their advancement, they were already well into the realm of the superhuman. Until one day, a literal army of monsters arrived on their doorsteps. *** No one had known what had happened, what had caused things, but somehow, monsters, [System] monsters, had appeared on the surface of Terra Nova and started swarming. Honestly, it was something straight out of the worst-case ¡°rampant autonomous summoning¡± scenario that sometimes got discussed on the History Channel. They¡¯d already called for help, obviously, but it had been a deliberate choice to not have a bunch of S-Rankers hanging around. This colony was meant to be a human, triumph, not the result of a bunch of gods made flesh reshaping the new world with a wave of their hands. And now it was biting them in the ass. People were worried that their FTL communicator, still in an experimental phase, would fail, but both Tanja and Viktoria had emergency beacons as a part of their bloodline, and they¡¯d triggered those the instant things had started to go wrong. Several days ago. ¡­ The only reason they were still alive was that the monsters were all at Tier 7 and below. Either whoever had summoned their ¡°progenitors¡± didn¡¯t have the mana for anything stronger, or the weaker monsters had been chosen because anything bigger would have been immediately noticed, and they¡¯d have just evacuated to the orbiting colony vessel before anything reached them. There was a rather easy win condition here, killing the originally summoned monsters would cut off the flow of reinforcements, but they could not spare the manpower, or power in general, to do so. As it stood, the idea of using more standard people to colonize new worlds for the sake of ¡°symbolism¡± had proved to have been rather abysmal. Tanja¡¯s wings opened up with a thought, then flicked forward without making her move a single inch, because she was not trying to fly. No, she was trying to unleash another hail of feathers turned blades, a dozen long knives that could cut through concrete like butter ripping apart several of the nearest hydra¡¯s heads, then a blast of hellfire cauterized the injuries. She¡¯d been at this way too long, her wings were starting to look bald. The feathers did grow back, but not quickly enough to sustain this rate of fire. And when the beast¡¯s final head tried to bite her, she drove her blade through the bottom of its jaw and into its brain, then unleashed a blast of hellfire to obliterate the inside of its skull. No real kill notification flashed in her vision, she¡¯d turned them off days ago, but rather, she saw a small notification in the corner of her eye that basically boiled down to ¡°kill confirmed.¡± She did not need to know what the monster was called or how much XP she¡¯d gotten, but she did need to know her enemy was dead. Now that the hydra was dead, Tanja looked around the battlefield. Most humans were still alive, although the number of people who were ¡°alive again¡± instead was rather numerous. If it weren¡¯t for the support of the twin valkyries, they likely would have already all died. Yet most people were in rough shape. Near death. Unable to hold out for very long. Spellfire rained down as Viktoria flew by overhead, discharging everything she¡¯d spent the last five minutes imbuing her wings with. Both of them had recently advanced to the 3rd Evolution, and thrown all their stockpiled XP into levelling their new legendary [Classes]. Viktoria had her [Indomitable Spellwing], while Tanja had gone in the near-opposite direction. [Saintess of the Crimson Fields]. Healing and blood. Not what she¡¯d expected her 3rd Evolution to be, but it was what she¡¯d been offered, one of three legendary options. Still, plenty of fighters had one or two less combat-focused Evolutions under her belt, so it should be fine. Tanja waved her hands and exerted the force of her [Bloody Retribution] over the mess the hydra had left behind, unleashing spears made of the toxic soup that was its sorry excuse for blood and impaling half a dozen monsters that weren¡¯t quite as tolerant of excruciating poison. And then, she triggered her [Class¡¯] Core [Skill], the only big one she had. [Attack of the Dead Men]. A crimson mist washed out from her palm, spreading across the field, and sinking into any humans not at near-perfect health. Then, after a long moment, bloody tentacles lashed out and ripped pieces from the nearest corpses, removing anything their hosts were lacking, transplanting everything needed to restore them to perfect health while the physical manifestation of the [Skill] jumped to the nearby dead humans. And then, it fixed those bodies with parts from dead monsters, creating Frankensteinian abominations that often just lay there, still dead. But in many cases, they rose again, the spirits of the fallen not yet having left the earthly plane and taking the chance to avenge their deaths. It was a gruesome [Skill], with an even more gruesome effect, she¡¯d thrown up the first time she¡¯d used it, yet it was effective. And it was not one she¡¯d ever have unlocked through training in a million years. No, this was the ultimate culmination of the horror show this world had become. A mass-healing ability that compensated for insufficient mana by harvesting the available flesh carpeting the ground. A stitched-together abomination rose from the center of the enemy horde, made almost entirely from monster pieces, and roared ¡°Run! I¡¯ll hold them off!¡± The body was so badly ruined she had no idea who that had even been, but the intent was obvious. Whoever was piloting the abomination, they¡¯d be distracting the monsters, and if everyone else ran ¡­ they might be able to get enough distance to establish a proper fortification. Or abandoning the meager defenses of the village could get them all killed. They took the chance anyway. *** Tanja¡¯s wings beat slowly as she hung above the source of it all, a land of blood broken summoning circles and shattered containment runes. Though based on a ring of protective enchantments that surrounded a massive bloodstain, this had not been a trap. It had been some absolute fool lining up monsters to fight simultaneously, so they could likely get a better [Class], or something like that. She¡¯d been tempted to try that herself in the past, but she hadn¡¯t actually done it. For obvious reasons. And in the middle of all, all the carnage were the monsters she was here to kill. A Tier 5 Hydra, a Tier 7 Familiar of Iammax in the form of a crimson-clad demon knight, a True Terror Bird, Tier 6, and finally, a Manticore, also Tier 7. The origins of the beasts that had nearly spelled doom to the colony. So, what to do ¡­ a stealth attack could cripple the strongest target, but actually finish off the Hydra ¡­ yeah, that ball of snakes had to go. Tanja furled her wings and dropped like a stone, then triggered [Air Strike] at the moment of impact, her wings re-manifesting in a single smooth motion that tore their metallic edges clean through the monster, carving it into several pieces, while completely preventing any and all damage she might have taken. The follow-up blast of bloodline-fuelled hellfire ensured that even if the initial burst of destruction had not been enough, the hydra would not rise again. One down, three to go. The disturbingly humanoid face of the manticore loomed before her, a lion¡¯s mane falling around it while its bat wings seemed to blot out the sky and a spike-studded scorpion tail rose over the beast¡¯s back. [Blood Retribution]! A hail of bloody needles tore up the monster¡¯s face, obliterating its eyes and ripping apart everything else, though this was a Tier 7 monster, with at least 10 Levels on her. It survived. When it unleashed a salvo of venomous lances as long as her forearm with a flick of its tail, Tanja interposed her wings while she leaped backwards. With a terrible metallic screeching sound, the projectiles penetrated, wedging themselves between her metal feathers but missing the only part of her wings that was actually flesh. With a shrugging motion, she shed the toxin-dripping spikes from where they stuck, then launched herself back up into the skies ¡­ where she found herself having to let herself fall right back down to avoid a scything kick from the terror bird. A two-meter tall prehistoric apex predator with a beak that could snap bones in half and clawed feet that could disembowel a person with a single kick, empowered to new heights by the [System]. But even though it would have fucked her up if it had hit, it was weaker than her. A single salvo of steel-shod feathers turned it into a pincushion. Even if it had managed to land properly after the impact, it would have died soon anyway. Sadly, Tanja was now also rather exposed, and the demon had started unleashing bolts of solid, metallic, fire at her. Cursing, she dove back down to put the manticore between them, only for the damn beast to lash out with its tail, which she blocked with her wings, again ¡­ only for the spikes to get stuck and when the tail was yanked back, she came along with it. Biting back another avalanche of harsh language, Tanja let herself be hurled at the demon, which seemed to be just as surprised as she was. Or, at the very least, it wasn¡¯t reacting in a timely fashion. They both went down in a heap, and their close-range [Auras] clashed in a furious explosion of power, heat, and cursed energy meeting her wall of steel and cloud of floating shards even as their blades began to clash in a furious melee. Tanja burned. The demon was cut and cut again, until blood was leaking from every gap in its armor. In the end, it was pure luck that decided it. Tanja noticed the manticore pouncing and her from behind and flung herself to the side, wings too damaged to fly from the previous collision, and the big lion-monster bowled over her previous foe, who didn¡¯t get up. Apparently, it had already been so badly injured that getting knocked to the ground had left it unable to rise once more. Wings rising limply over her shoulders, forming a primitive shield, sword in hand, Tanja stared down the blinded manticore. Could she ¡­ yes she could. Enough blood had been spilled here, and some of it was hers. [Crimson Sanctification] triggered, a wave of power washing out from her to stain the dirt red even where it had not been directly covered in the lifeblood of the living and the dead. Vitality flowed up into her even as the manticore seemed to stagger, restrained by the now-holy ground. Once the already spilled blood was used up, the [Skill] would start draining her, but she should be able to finish this before then. Sidestep another tail strike, blade to the joint between the last and second-to-last segment of the tail, yank sword back to avoid it getting ripped out of her hand, get headbutted by the monster and scramble back, retrieve arm from its maw before it had bite back ¡­ then launch yourself back into the beast¡¯s face, and drive the sword into its eye up to the hilt. Tanja grimaced and winced as she stared down at the row of lacerations the manticore¡¯s teeth had left in her left forearm. That had been close. A series of tremendous explosions rocking the world disrupted her contemplation, causing her to stare at the cataclysm happening in the distance. Reinforcements. Judging by the distinct color of the flames, Isaac was here. ¡°You¡¯re late, big brother,¡± Tanja smiled sadly. ¡°We had to win this one ourselves.¡± She sighed, and glanced at her wings. They were already fully restored, no need for extra healing spells. Time to fly over to the others. *** In the end, the culprit was simultaneously identified and never found. And only in the world of the [System] did that statement make perfect sense. It had been a company who had tried to buy the planet but been shot down due to the political and ¡°image¡± implications of the first naturally inhabitable non-Earth planet being sold. So they had found some of the younger, more impressionable members of the expedition and dripped poison into their ears, convincing them that they had it in them to grow powerful, and all they had to do was start summoning. A few tips and tricks for doing it in the dumbest possible way and the disaster that had wound up unfolding had been near-unavoidable.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. The action hadn¡¯t even been illegal, despite the inherent immorality of indirectly getting people killed. In time, the culprit would have been found, and a while after that, there would have been consequences, considering just who had been embarrassed, hurt, or killed, but it had never gotten that far. Because the Ghost had stepped in, murdered everyone directly involved, and erased them from history using an unknown [Skill] of immeasurable power. Some people still knew the names, those who had personally known the ¡°victims,¡± but the information could not be shared in any way. Records were erased, words snatched away by the wind, and even memories slowly began to erode under the relentless march of time, leaving the perpetrators to disappear into the abyss of history, joining the handful of others who had managed to offend the Ghost so badly that even their name did not survive. Though, to be honest, Tanja didn¡¯t care all that much about it either way. She¡¯d found herself on Terra Nova, realized who she was, and decided where to go from here. *** 2077 Well, it had been five years since Isaac had gone off into outer space, and since then, she had hit Level 150 with her legendary 4th Evolution, and she was happy. Also busy, eternally pinging between medical work, training herself, and going Aspect hunting. Because that was what had, at least as far as she could tell, given her her [Skysundering Blade]. Steel, air, and winged monster Aspects, all having come together to form a [Class] as deadly as her previous one had been ¡­ sanctifying? Holy? Blessed? Anyway, that was the [Class] she¡¯d been using for the last fifty Levels, and while it had been good, she wanted something that truly fit her for her 5th Evolution. Something that combined everything she was and wanted to be, a warrior and healer, a magical being that crossed the stars and seemingly came straight out of myth and legend. A legendary [Class], of course, which she still had to earn. Because at the moment, she was still only being offered epic ones. But she¡¯d only hit Level 150 literally an hour ago, which was why she was lying on the sandy shores of one of Olympus Mons¡¯ massive lakes, looking like she¡¯d just run two marathons back to back, utterly exhausted. Wings of brown, amber, and gold were splayed out to either side, having dug vast trenches through the beach when she¡¯d unfurled them. Yes, Tanja decided, she¡¯d stay here for at least a week, only getting up for food, the bathroom, and to jump into the water. Though to be entirely honest with herself, she¡¯d probably swear off the beach in a day or two, when enough sand had found itself into unfortunate places over time, and she¡¯d eventually flee until she¡¯d managed to scrub those memories from her brain, like she¡¯d always done so far. Wings had way too many spots grains of sand could eventually wind up in and start itching something fierce, but until things got that far, she¡¯d stay right here. It was funny. If this had still been the world of her childhood, she¡¯d have either already long since had children, or had to get used to the idea that she¡¯d never have any of her own. Yet in the world she lived in, some would barely even consider her an adult, someone who¡¯d only lived for a tiny fraction of her lifespan, who still had enough time to do, well, anything and everything she wanted. The people who¡¯d been adults when the [System] had initialized had struggled to adapt, but they¡¯d adapted. The children born after the initialization were doing just fine. But to people like her, for whom their entire world had been transformed as they were learning what the world was like ¡­ the situation had been fucking weird. Still was, to be honest. Tanja sighed and laid her head in the sand. With how philosophical she was getting, you¡¯d have thought she was dru- ¡­ Her phone rang. If it was another person trying to congratulate her for reaching the peak of the 4th Evolution ¡­ well, she wouldn¡¯t blow up at them, she¡¯d be polite, but she¡¯d have still been happier with peace, just peace. With a sigh, Tanja rolled over and grabbed her phone from the drinks table. It was the SDC, the Summoning Disaster Commission, whose job it was to evaluate the safety of summoning practices and fix things if shit hit the fan. She, and most other people striving to reach the peak, had that number saved, but that was to get help. There was no reason for them to be calling. She certainly couldn¡¯t remember having done anything even remotely worthy of their attention. But it was vanishingly unlikely to be a butt dial or the like, and anything more general would have been sent out as a part of the newsletter. This had to be important. ¡°Tanja Thoma,¡± she picked up, not even bothering to hide the alarm and annoyance she was currently feeling in equal measure. ¡°Ms. Thoma, have you ever heard of the ¡®Crucible¡¯ Dungeon?¡± a generic, flat, voice that could just as likely been a machine as a human, asked. ¡°Urban legend, monstrous Dungeon that offers over-the-top threats and guarantees legendary [Classes]?¡± ¡°Well, someone built it, things predictably went wrong, and we can¡¯t get in because the idiots who made it decided locking out anyone under or over Level 150 would increase the danger and make it easier to obtain high-rarity [Classes].¡± ¡°And you¡¯re asking me to help ¡­ why exactly?¡± Tanja asked. Granted, most people who hit Level 150 didn¡¯t run out of the summoning room and fly across the grounds of Akashik Academy whooping with joy, the final threshold had the smallest number of people stuck at it, and those with her quality of [Classes] were still uncommon, even at those Levels, but how did that trail of logic end with ¡°Tanja, go deal with that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s complicated, but suffice it to say, we need someone capable of using resurrection magic who can defend themselves. Are you willing to help?¡± Tanja didn¡¯t bother to keep her sigh internal as she said ¡°yes¡± and got directions to a point basically on the other side of Mars. Well, there went her holiday. *** Even from the air, Tanja could recognize half a dozen different S-Rankers, expert mages, and ten extremely distraught people who looked to be in their thirties or forties, paired up. The parents of those inside, most likely. She landed next to Patrick, whom she had met only on occasion, but at least she knew him. ¡°Schei?e,¡± he muttered. Magic sparked against his fingers, though he ignored that in favor of turning to look up at her. ¡°Look, you¡¯re going to get a whole spiel but basically, a guy bonded with a Dungeon Class, created one that is Level-locked to 150, and I can¡¯t crack it before everyone currently alive is also dead. Also, only five people can be inside at any one moment, only one person¡¯s died so far, and you can¡¯t backtrack, so you have to clear it with whatever you have inside.¡± ¡°The healer¡¯s the one who died?¡± Tanja guessed. Patrick grimaced. ¡°They literally forged a hundred-thousand layers of runic wards inside the dungeon stone. It¡¯s all brute force, no finesse, and while I have a workaround, I have to break them one at a time.¡± ¡°When those wards go down, we¡¯re destroying the Dungeon. That¡¯s what we¡¯re here for.¡± Tanja turned to see an Asian man wrapped in heavy plate armor approach. Seon Yoo-jin, former Guildmaster of the Hunter¡¯s Guild. ¡°I¡¯ll understand if you don¡¯t want to risk your life for the kinds of fools who are trapped in there. You¡¯ve been called in because certain individuals have more pull than they should.¡± He flashed a dirty look at the presumed parents, who only then seemed to notice her. ¡°I¡¯ll offer you ¡­¡± was all the closest man managed to get out before he found himself trying to talk around a chunk of ice that seemed to have manifested in his mouth of its own accord. ¡°How about this:¡± Tanja suggested. ¡°Each and every single one gives a full explanation of every law you broke to make this Dungeon happen.¡± And with that, she pulled out her phone and plopped herself down in the red dirt right then and there. What she was actually doing was getting a rundown on what she¡¯d face inside from Patrick via a Party. She wasn¡¯t entirely sure if she¡¯d be going in just yet, though she was pretty close to falling on the side of ¡°screw it, let¡¯s save them.¡± Especially if it prevented a repeat performance. Having everyone involved publically dragged through the mud would hopefully make that happen. So she continued to sit there, studiously ignoring the pleas, bribes, and threats being hurled her way. Honestly, she didn¡¯t care about anyone¡¯s influence. While she didn¡¯t have any of her own, Isaac¡¯s legacy largely insulated her from anyone who tried to go after her through extra-legal means. Of course, if Isaac had been in her place, he¡¯d likely already have run in and beaten the Dungeon in five seconds flat. But she wasn¡¯t Isaac. She¡¯d be in serious danger if she tried this, and wouldn¡¯t march in there for the benefit of a bunch of idiots who¡¯d risked the lives of everyone in the area with a Dungeon that was functionally impossible to swiftly destroy if it went crazy. That was when Guildmaster Seon walked back over. ¡°They accepted the deal. But you still don¡¯t have to do this,¡± he advised her. ¡°But I¡¯m going to,¡± Tanja replied after a long pause. Part of her continued to remind her how dangerous this was, and who she was risking it for, but another was reminding her just how bad she¡¯d feel if she didn¡¯t try. Wasn¡¯t that what had made Isaac who he was, marching into whatever hell the world threw up to rip apart whatever fresh horror threatened lives? He might have played it off as ¡°I¡¯m just selfish, I gotta live on this planet too, you know¡± but he nevertheless had gone above and beyond numerous times. ¡°This¡¯d better not turn into me becoming some kind of default rescue part,¡± she grumbled as she jumped to her feet. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry about that,¡± Patrick stated flatly. ¡°I¡¯ll make sure that every single thing they ever offered you, they¡¯ll actually have to produce.¡± She snorted. ¡°It¡¯ll be interesting to see you pull that off.¡± And with that, she marched up to the entrance of the dungeon and stopped just short of entering. Did she really want to do something so monumentally self-destruc- ¡­ before she could talk herself out of it, Tanja took another step, going beyond the point of no return, her full regalia manifesting around her. Black cloth covered in silver plates wrapped her, a helmet with black flames burning deep within its eyesockets took its place atop her head, and at her side, a Kriegsmesser appeared. Legacy. Isaac¡¯s old sword, the one he¡¯d eventually replaced with a literally legendary weapon, Balmung, from the old Germanic myths. Behind her, the door slammed shut, closing itself with such violence she was sure she¡¯d have been cut in half, had she not already been fully inside ¡­ though that was obviously why it had closed. Wind magic swirled around Tanja, plucking feathers from her wings that turned into lethal blades the instant they lost contact with her skin, rapidly covering her in a layer of flashing blades seamlessly interwoven with her [Aura]. So, let¡¯s see what this ¡°Crucible¡± was like. Slowly, she advanced through the corridor, directing metallic feathers to clear the area before her, bouncing off the floor to ensure there were no triggers there, and carving through the air to hack apart potential tripwires. There were a few places where traps had already been triggered, but that was all. She certainly didn¡¯t trigger anything. Nothing really came of it, but she kept at it anyway ¡­ until she reached the first staircase and her feathers went straight through the first few stairs. As in, even though she could see them, they weren¡¯t actually there. A normal fall wouldn¡¯t endanger her, hitting the floor at terminal velocity would still leave her perfectly fine, but there could be anything down there. Well, that was going to be a problem. Tanja sighed, and started looking around for the actual path forward, except that didn¡¯t exist, because of course it didn¡¯t. It was a straight shot from the entrance to the staircase that led deeper, no branching tunnels, no other paths to go. Tanja hurled a few feathers deeper into the corridor to check if there were solid stairs deeper in, not until the staircase turned. And there wasn¡¯t enough space for her to fly. Someone with a different means of flight would be able to still fly along, but she doubted the dungeon would have been designed so that it could only be solved with a very specific kind of [Skill]. Though if it had been, the only way to do this was going to end was with her waiting until the S-Rankers outside busted down the walls. Which would be a rather pathetic end to this whole affair, wouldn¡¯t it? No, there had to be a trick here, a solution, something she¡¯d missed. So ¡­ when in doubt, try everything. A single beat of her wings unleashed a barrage of blade-feathers into the stairway¡¯s entry. Most just went through the floor, bounced off the ceiling, or struck the bend found a hundred meters down the stairs. But some, well, they went through the wall. Well, that had been easy. If it wasn¡¯t a trap, that was. A thorough round of prodding with a long stick she¡¯d taken from her inventory hit a hidden switch and deactivated the illusion cloaking the wall. Tanja went down the newly revealed staircase, though she never let up the prodding, until after what felt like thousands of steps, she emerged into a large cavern. Big enough for her to fly, too big for trap-triggers to have been strung throughout the open air. Her wings unfurled fully with a satisfying ¡°crack¡± of displaced air, then launched herself toward the stony sky. Beneath Tanja, a vast expanse of stone fell away, dotted with small rock houses and a single, massive ziggurat filling the space. There were a few bloodstains, some damage to the city, sure. But other than that, it was empty. Quiet like a tomb. ¡­ until a freaking dragon detached from the ceiling and launched itself at her, red-black scales covering it from snout to tail, baleful energy streaming off it in waves. It didn¡¯t look particularly agile, more of a heavy bomber than a fighter jet, but she¡¯d treat it with respect and caution all the same. Dark flames, akin to hellfire but somehow even more malevolent, boiled from the beast¡¯s maw as it hurled itself at her, creating a massive streak of flame through the air, almost as though it was a meteor raining down onto an unsuspecting Earth. A single flap of her wings took Tanja out of the monster¡¯s path but not its wake, a massive shockwave that covered a full quarter of the cave¡¯s width and slammed into her like a battering ram, sending her tumbling ass over teakettle until she managed to stabilize herself, almost a hundred meters back. So, not a pushover. In fact, between its size and powers, she¡¯d compare it more to a [Raid Boss] than a regular dungeon monster. She just hoped it didn¡¯t have the same kind of raw durability they did. Tanja followed the monster with her eyes, tightening her grip on Legacy¡¯s hilt. It drew a loooooong circle as it turned back around, its sheer momentum apparently rather hard to bleed off. It was powerful but slow, which should have allowed her to dance around it with ease. In theory. Because that thing¡¯s wake would always be there, ready to knock her for a loop, with the best way through likely being a head-on collision that would still hit her like a truck and slow her momentum, leaving her right in front of the beast¡¯s open snout. But it wouldn¡¯t throw her to the side ¡­ as long as she survived. Yeah, that wouldn¡¯t fly. Tanja flew backwards as the monster came in for another attack run, trying to make sure she¡¯d have as much time as possible to spot a weakness. Yet as she watched, it seemed to be gathering momentum, steadily growing faster and while she was still more than able to dodge, the wake slammed into her with so much force it came within mere meters of actually slamming her into the nearby wall. And just like that, she had her in. If the shockwave got stronger at faster speeds, that would indicate that it got weaker at slower ones, right? So Tanja made the sane choice and started chasing the giant murder lizard. By the time she¡¯d managed to catch up, it was already done turning. A flap of her wings carried her over its gnashing jaws and into the ceiling. Which she immediately kicked off of and slammed into the monster¡¯s back, sword-first. Legacy¡¯s tip slammed into a gap between scales, but it penetrated only a couple of centimeters, barely enough to reach the flesh below. That was when the dragon¡¯s wings reached the apex of their motion and descended again, making its body jerk upwards and nearly slammed her sword¡¯s hilt into Tanja¡¯s gut as she staggered. Though hastily banishing the blade turned that into a mere stumble, rather than an embarrassing and painful injury. Instead, she just tumbled off its back and had to dive to avoid getting smacked by its tail. Wow. That thing was going to be a pain, wasn¡¯t it? Tanja started chasing the dragon, and managed to land a couple more blows, but none of them were any more successful. Even when heavily empowered with Strike-type [Skills], the monster was just way too tough, and going for weak points wasn¡¯t working either. The shockwave that traveled along with it made attacking from the side hard, going at it from behind was only possible by approaching straight on to avoid the wind created by its wings, leaving her open to the tail, and attacking it head-on risked encountering its teeth or flame. As she flashed past yet again, Tanja cast [Bloody Retribution] to command the blood pooling around its scales to rip and tear. The dragon¡¯s roar of pain shook the entire cavern as scales and the skin it was attached to went flying, bloody rain following soon after, painting the ground red. It had worked, but also cost far too much mana. And while the flesh below was obviously weaker, she wasn¡¯t sure if it was weaker enough to finish this in a reasonable amount of time, and if it would leave her with any mana in the tank later. So she resorted to the nuclear options, and walked straight into the lion¡¯s den. Or mouth, as it were. Tanja waited until the dragon¡¯s path had nearly reached the other wall before hurling herself after it, accelerating for all she was worth, and just as it was finished turning back to face her, triggered [Skypiercer] and the [The Rending Blade] simultaneously. The former was a cooldown [Skill] that hurled her forward while cloaking her in a near-indestructible forcefield amusingly similar to what was protecting the dragon,and the latter, she could use as often as she wanted, it just drunk her mana more quickly than a Bavarian downed beer at the Oktoberfest. Energy coiled around the tip of her sword, capable of ripping apart anything it struck, even if it would have traditionally been able to resist or ignore a blade¡¯s impact, such as spellwork or things without an even remotely physical form. Oh, and it also left behind a trail of energy that hung in the air, ensuring that even after Tanja was done blasting clean through her enemy, any further movement would cut up its insides. The dragon had opened its mouth and tried to spit fire at her, but it had been caught off-guard by her sudden increase in speed, and by the time she exploded out of its back a third of the way down its body, it was already falling out of the air, dying. Which meant that despite the beast¡¯s toughness, it wasn¡¯t an actual [Raid Boss]. Because those particular fuckers could keep with injuries that would have put down a slasher movie villain a hundred times over. As she watched the dragon¡¯s corpse hit the ground, Tanja tried to puzzle out what exactly was going on here. Why was the dragon the only monster here? Hadn¡¯t this area already been beaten? The damage to the city would have indicated so, yet the biggest threat, the creature this entire area seemed to have been designed around, it had still been alive, kicking, and a huge pain in the ass. So had the original delvers just straight-up run past it? Wasn¡¯t the entire fucking point of this to challenge yourself? Had they missed this thing, or just run from it? Either way, the fact that she¡¯d beaten it alone, albeit using a cooldown [Skill], told her that the people this Dungeon had been built for had absolutely no business being inside it. Actually, considering the large scorch marks she could see from up here, the dragon had fought at least one thing before she¡¯d shown up, and only one group had delved inside before now ¡­ Tanja swore under her breath. Typical. Though then again, these people had created, or at least benefited, from a Dungeon that had practically been designed to be a problem, locking out the vast majority of humanity, including those who normally cleaned up issues such as a Dungeon Core creating eldritch horrors or plague monsters. The ¡°Crucible¡± was interesting in theory, but in practice, there were way, way, waaaaaay too many issues that could arise, issues that could then easily spiral into near-apocalyptic disasters. But she wasn¡¯t here to fight, she was here to find the idiots who¡¯d tried to delve into this hellhole. Tanja went looking for the way forward, and found I after only thirty seconds or so. It was a literal hole in the wall, which led to a corridor filled with spent traps ¡­ and a human corpse, burnt beyond recognition. Though a crushed skull was most likely the cause of death. The healer, most likely. They hadn¡¯t even bothered to take their friend¡¯s body. Wow ¡­ yeah, they straight-up sucked. Why was she risking her life to save them again? Oh, right, because it had seemed like the right thing at the time. And because she¡¯d blackmailed the parents into confessing all the shit that had gone into this, ensuring that a repeat performance would be much less likely to come about. Using her feather-storm tactic for cleaning out the traps, Tanja advanced until she reached the end, then used her sword to open the door, wary of traps. Many Dungeons would have saferooms in places like this, but considering how dangerous this place was supposed to be, she doubted it would be anything close to that safe. Nothing blew up, not in the traditional sense of the word. ¡°Are you all they sent?¡± Tanja heard the man at the same time that she saw him. He was her age, white, had brown hair, blue eyes, and practically radiated ¡°I am better than you¡± energy. Instead of responding verbally, she just raised a questioning eyebrow. ¡°You think you¡¯re getting paid for having an attitude?¡± Oh God ¡­ between a slightly damp collar and the wet trails on the man¡¯s cheeks, it was obvious that he¡¯d been crying, yet the instant reinforcements arrived, the moment it looked like things would be fine and the danger had passed, this was how they acted? ¡°For one, I¡¯m not getting pa- ¡­¡± Tanja tried to explain, she really did, but was immediately faced with a barrage of questions. Some of them might even have been worth answering, but she didn¡¯t hear them over the constant yelling of the asshole getting right in her face. Deep breath in, deep breath out, think about it, really think, decide if you can live with the consequences ¡­ yeah, Tanja absolutely could. She balled her right hand into a half-fist, leaving her middle and index finger extended, activated [Magic Blade] and [The Rending Blade] to wrap them in a mana-formed blade, and drove it into the bottom of the man¡¯s jaw, up into his skull, a likely lethal attack even before she unleashed a short burst of hellfire that streamed from his mouth and nose. Even as he toppled over like a felled tree, Tanja intoned ¡°[Ressurection].¡± And by the time he hit the ground, he was already alive once more. Confused about why he was suddenly on the floor, but alive. Shocked silence greeted her action. Finally. Was that how Isaac would have done it? Probably not, but then again, she sincerely doubted Isaac would have found himself in a position like this either, he¡¯d have prevented it from happening in the first place. Or had some kind of leverage to get them to keep their pieholes shut. But it had worked, and had gotten her an opening. That was what mattered. ¡°Shut up, sit down, and listen. I¡¯m here because, for some reason, I don¡¯t want any of you to die, or at least not stay dead. That¡¯s the job I decided to do because I¡¯d like it that way, so don¡¯t act like assholes. I¡¯m here to replace the healer you got killed until the Dungeon gets busted open in a couple of days at the latest, and then, the S-Rankers waiting outside will come storming in and crush this place. ¡°Also, if keep being a pain in my ass until that happens, then I¡¯ll kill you, bring you back after fifteen minutes so you don¡¯t stay dead, and then kill you again. And I will keep that up until we¡¯re out of here, because some of you look like you¡¯d literally be less of a hassle if we have to drag your dead bodies along instead of having your quote-unquote ¡®help.¡¯ ¡°So, are you going to be that kind of problem?¡± Silence greeted her pronouncement, but it seemed to have landed nevertheless. Though it wouldn¡¯t last, she knew that. A while ago, Tanja had decided she was going to start reading the classics, or at least the ¡°classics¡± of leadership. She¡¯d read the Book of Five Rings before as part of learning swordsmanship, so she¡¯d started with The Art of War, then followed it up with The Prince and gotten halfway through the absolute monstrosity Clausewitz had creatively titled ¡°On War¡± before deciding that her time was better spent studying the sword. But there was a sentiment that had stuck with her. Fear and love were both ways to lead, and while love was strong but fragile, capable of easily being lost, fear was an iron shackle, not good at provoking true support however perfectly passable at maintaining command. The issue with ruling through fear lay elsewhere. Because when people feared you more than what you might do to them if they stepped out of line, when fear became true hatred from the bottom of their hearts, then you were fucked. And that was exactly where her current actions would lead, they¡¯d turn on her once they recovered their wits. However, this was not a situation where she needed true support, she just needed to run out the clock. If this was an actual saferoom, as some dungeons had them, that would be easy. But considering how difficult this Dungeon was supposed to be ¡­ and there was already an animated, draconic-looking, suit of armor kicking in the door. This would get ugly. ¡°Alright, heads up!¡± Tanja yelled. ¡°If you die in a stupid way, I¡¯ll bring you back just so I can kick your ass myself!¡± *** The end was extraordinarily anticlimactic. The entire Dungeon quaked, magical energy flickered and flared, and the very air seemed to scream as the S-Rankers outside tore their way in. There was a series of rending explosions next, getting ever closer, while the temperature in their now-devastated ¡°saferoom,¡± until finally, Guildmaster Seon poked his head into the door. ¡°You guys alright?¡± he asked, catching the looks the others were throwing Tanja and grinned. ¡°Good job, Ms. Thoma.¡± Then, he turned to the others, grinning wolfishly. ¡°Enjoy the next ten minutes, that¡¯s how long we¡¯ll take to clear this place. Then, we¡¯re going to figure out just how much of this is your fault.¡± Tanja could hear the savage glee in his voice. As angry as he¡¯d been outside, as happy he was to finally have the situation resolved. She stayed put in the trashed ¡°safe¡± room, covered in blood, guts, and armor fragments, enjoying the sheer discomfort of these brats. The Guildmaster and Patrick came back four minutes later, with the mage looking just as he had outside, while the tank was covered in soot but completely unharmed otherwise. The sheer ludicrous power of the fifth Evolution at work. Tanja hopped to her feet and practically skipped out of the Dungeon, while Patrick had to point out that the entire cavern system was soon going to cave in to get the idiot brigade to move. Once she was outside, though, it didn¡¯t take long for the last twenty hours to catch up to her, and Tanja just let herself flop down on a nearby camping chair.She¡¯d done it. Granted, she¡¯d made more than a few enemies, and she could feel the angry glares from both the idiot brigade and their parents, but she could live with that. *** To her great shame, it took Tanja almost a month to think of looking at her [Class] Evolution options, though when she did, seeing what she did more than wiped away her bad feelings.
Chooser of the Slain (legendary) Its name might be the literal translation of ¡°Valkyrie,¡± but this Class is the truest essence of the power wielded by those ancient warriors. The Choser of the Slain, quite literally, stands on the border between life and death, between this world and the next, and chooses who crosses it, who lives, who dies, and returns as an Einherjar to fight once more. Through lethal swordplay, blood manipulation, and the outright wielding of death itself as a weapon, the holder of this Class can put her foes in the grave. Through the very powers of life, through unparalleled knowledge of all things healing, the holder of this Class can deny the reaper not only for others but also herself. Through the power of pure human spirit, you may grant great strength to the worthy you rip from the cold embrace of the grave, allowing them to evolve into stronger versions of their current race, or simply turning them into the very embodiment of martial power that is the Einherjar. Whether it is taking lives on the battlefield, or saving them off it, this Class grants and/or enhances the Skills necessary for that.
A legendary [Class], not only in the sense of the [System¡¯s] literal classifications, but it also made her an actual legend. A direct rebirth of an ancient being seen as being a direct conduit to the very gods themselves. This was truly a [Class] she would be happy to carry into eternity.